Return of My Beloved
by Kurokocchi003
Summary: Sakura thought that Naruto, her best friend, and Sasuke, the traitor of Konoha, were dead. She began hating them both even though they were dead because they left her without bidding goodbyes. One day, after her two year long mission, she came back to Konoha and found out that her former teammates were actually alive! Find out what happen next. M for foul language, as usual.
1. Home

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Hello! The plot of this story just popped in my mind along with my other story entitled Sadist's Little Monster. That was an OkiKagu fic so if you're a Gintama fan and you ship the pairing, feel free to read the story! Thank you :P

The first five chapters of this story were just telling how Sakura had lived these past few years when she thought Sasuke and Naruto were dead. So do not expect a lot of it. The real plot will happen in Chapter 6 or so. Just read, okay? Thank you!

**WARNING: M **for Foul language, and OCCness of the characters.

**DISCLAIMER: **I OWN nothing, except the plot and the grammar plus spelling errors.

"Talking"

'Inner Sakura'

_Flashback_

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**Chapter I: Home**

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She leaped from branch to branch with an incredible speed. She knew her enemies were just running behind her. She had no time for these shits!

Charging more chakra to her feet and legs, she professionally avoided all the trees that blocked her path toward an uncertain destination. She stopped for a second as she leaped to the right, trying to lose her enemies' tracks. She knew it wouldn't work but at least it could buy her some time to plan for an escape.

She changed direction again, not daring to check if her enemies were following her or not. All she needed to do was to escape and to go home.

She stopped abruptly to dodge a kunai aimed at her. She cursed quite loud when she saw an explosive tag attached to it. Out of reflex and chakra, she covered her upper body with her arms and jumped away from the explosive weapon as far as she could manage.

The explosion caught her and she received first degree burn on her arms. She cursed again while distributing healing chakra toward her injured body parts to stop the swelling and to lessen the pain. She skillfully landed on the ground and dodged all the kunai that headed toward her direction with grace despite her injuries. She back flipped two times to avoid the shuriken but missed a kunai that stabbed her in the thigh.

"Shit!" She hastily spun around to deflect her opponent's kick straight to her stomach, which has a deep slash due to her previous battle against these rogue ninjas. She healed the wound already but she could just stop the bleeding, the tissues were still damaged and if not attended right away, it may get infected, which was not good.

But she was too slow to defect the attack. Mentally thinking for an alternative solution, she lowered her body so the kick won't direct to her injured limbs. She cried in pain when the kick hit her in the ribs and found herself thrown on the hard surface of a tree. Damn, she broke two ribs.

Cursing and groaning in pain, she forced herself to stand, using the tree's trunk as support. She glared at the three ninjas several meters away from her. They were rogue nins from Iwa, she noted.

'Maybe you left a track, that's why they can find you easily.'

Shaking her head to concentrate, she healed her injured body enough for her to engage in a battle while not injuring herself more. While doing so, she discreetly observed her opponents. Their faces were hidden behind their masks but she could care less about the matter. All she needed to do was to beat all the day lights out of their body.

'Shannaro!'

Once the pain subsided, she put her fighting stance and readied herself to battle. She had no choice anyway.

"You got some spunk there, eh, missy?" One of the rogue ninjas remarked as he twirled a kunai around his index finger. She called him Mr. Cocky.

She didn't answer, merely plotting how to escape using the small amount of chakra in her system. She might be five or so miles away from Konoha. Not too far away but she needed enough chakra to travel.

"Maybe we can take you and make you our new medic," the other one said. Mr. Skinny, she described. "In exchange to the one you killed, of course." She glared at them, disgusted at such offer.

'Tell them to go to hell and fuck with their bastard medic.'

"Right, loyal to the village though, sorry." She deadpanned.

The last one gritted his teeth. She called him Mr. Temperamental but that's too long so she ended up calling him Mr. Shorty.

"It's not my fault the guy has to die," she said blankly, counting the ways she could knock these bastards in less than a minute if she recovered enough chakra to do so.

"The fuck?!" Mr. Shorty exclaimed. "It's your fault that Usudo-san has to die, you bitch!"

"Look," she sounded tired all of the sudden. "I know it's my fault but not entirely." She smiled inwardly when she found out that she had recovered enough chakra to beat these assholes. "I'm on a mission. I had just finished it and I am deadbeat tired. I wanna go home so…" She trailed off, looking unconcerned.

"So what? Do you expect us to let you do what-fucking-ever you want and decide to put everything to an end then kiss each other good bye as we separate in our different happy ways?! Ha!"

"That actually sounds good…" She agreed, pissing Mr. Shorty more, much to her amusement.

"If you wanna go home," Mr. Skinny stated, "that can be instantly arranged. Just die and we're going to send your corpse back to Konoha." He crouched down to emphasize his point, signaling that the battle was on.

She crouched down and raised her defense as well, grabbing something from her ninja bag. The three ninjas watched her alarmingly and intently.

She picked three smoke bombs and, upon seeing this stunt, the three rogue nins broke into laughter.

"Smoke bombs? Really?" Mr. Cocky exclaimed, clutching his stomach and laughing.

"I don't expect that Konoha produced such incapable and incompetent ninjas nowadays." Mr. Skinny declared, smirking behind his mask.

"Well, it is always good to return to the basics…" She said blankly, obviously not affected by the insults.

"With that skill, you did not deserve killing Usudo-san. I am starting to doubt you." Mr. Cocky said once again now that he controlled his laughs.

"I'm not here for you to praise my skills in the first place anyway…" She rolled the smoke bombs in her hand as she counted the seconds best to strike.

"Are you aware that we have someone who can detect chakra?" Mr. Skinny asked pointedly. "Planning to fool us with bunshin is not an option anymore, kunoichi." He was obviously unaware of her true plans. Not that she wanted him to be aware of it anyway.

"Oh, I'm fully aware." Now's the best time to strike, she thought. "Oh, well, better to end these shits. At least," she paused, raising her arm which was holding the smoke bombs, "you'll die laughing."

Without warning, she dropped them on the ground and a massive, thick, purple smoke covered the entire clearing. All three ninjas waited and when they felt a slight burst of chakra, they sprung into action, running toward the dark smoke.

They stopped midway when four clones of her spread in all directions. As though expecting this assault, Mr. Shorty, the one who can detect chakra, raised two fingers and muttered something under his breath. In instant, he could feel the real her from afar. The real she was not hard to detect; he could possibly know what a clone is and what the real one is.

"A hundred and twenty-five degree to the west, approximately half a hundred meters and counting." He stated and all men ran toward said direction but then stopped abruptly by Mr. Shorty. "What the fuck? I can detect her in the same measurement to the east!"

"What?!" Mr. Cocky exclaimed, sounding quite impatient and agitated. "Don't fuck and shit, Nadaru. Get your ass working properly!"

"I'm trying, okay?!" Mr. Shorty shouted and redid his technique, getting the same results.

"This will lead us to nothing." Mr. Skinny stepped forward, emitting that 'leader-sort of' aura. "Nadaru, to the east. Kuzomu, the other. I got the rest."

In instant, Mr. Cocky and Mr. Shorty vanished. Mr. Skinny remained on his spot, ignoring the direction of the other clones. He closed his eyes and muttered under his breath before smirking. "Found you." He vanished right away.

She smirked to herself. The plan was all simple. She made four clones with the same replica of her chakra signature then spread them away in all directions. She transformed herself into slug then teleported about half a hundred meters away from them. Upon transforming and masking her chakra, she left and headed toward Konoha. Those fools must've following her clones.

Ah, it is always good to have complete chakra control.

'Damn straight!'

She reached to her bag and grabbed the last soldier pill she has. Praying to Kami that nothing would go fucking wrong, she plopped it in her mouth and chewed the tasteless pill.

The moment her system felt the rush of fresh chakra was the moment she felt someone was following her.

She cursed mentally and increased her pace. Fuck it's like playing Tom and Jerry game again; chasing, escaping and shit.

She decided that running wouldn't help her; she speedily jumped toward a tree and hid behind it.

"We are not playing hide and seek. Come out and let's deal with it."

She cursed mentally when she realized that the culprit was not more than fifty meters away from her.

"I know you're running out of chakra already," she cursed again at him knowing that he knew that he has actually the upper hand in here. "Hence come out and let's settle this."

By the sound of his voice, she realized that he was the skinny one. Oh, great. That guy has some spunk. She has to deal with a fight against someone who can steal chakra, not to mention, fight with this amount of chakra in her system. She needed to reserve for her trek later, that is if she could survive.

Looking up to the scarlet sky, she wondered what on her previous doings gave her this tough luck.

"Alright." She said and walked out behind the tree. "Let's get this over with."

XX

Approximately thirty minutes passed, two bodies of unconscious shinobi lied on the ground. There was another figure of shinobi, likely belonged to a woman, and she was sitting on another shinobi's waist. She had her fingers around his throat and the other one was holding a kunai that was pointed towards his body part where the sun does not usually shine.

"Get off me," he hissed darkly. "And let me kill you." He thrashed under her but she held him so firm, making his actions failed miserably.

"You know, get over with it." She commented. Once the rogue nin noticed that he was losing, he lost his cool during their battle. Mr. Skinny kept on rambling about Usudo, about him being his best friend, about losing someone he loved, and about taking revenge of it.

'Ha. I'm so tired hearing that shit.'

"You know nothing about our friendship." He grumbled, coughing hard here and then. "You don't have any idea how it feels like to lose someone you loved."

'Oh, you didn't have any idea, Mr. Lovely Man.'

"He's dead." She stated blankly. "Whatever things you intended to do won't change anything. He's dead. Just accept that fact."

The man kept on thrashing and glaring at her. "I'll give him justice."

The inner she laughed hysterically inside her head. 'Justice my ass.'

"Rogue nukenins like you do not deserve any justice." She said sharply while tightening her grip around the man's throat, making him choke in the process. "You deserve nothing but death."

Finally, the man decided not to fight and just limped on the ground. "Then kill me. What's the use of living if you don't have someone to live with anyway…"

She charged chakra towards her fingertips and traveled her hand from his neck to his temple. She hesitated for a millisecond, which wasn't gone unnoticed by the man under her. "Make it quick, kunoichi."

She didn't move. She was staring at him with soft expression. "Usudo Haizaki is accused and proved to be dangerous. I don't care if you are aware about his vicious actions and doings but if you truly care about him, then you will let him die."

The man didn't answer immediately, maybe trying to understand what she meant. Then he chuckled. "We have different viewpoint about the world."

"Look," she threatened, pushing her fingertips against his temple harder. "The world is not rotating around one person. If he dies, let him. What's the use of avenging if it doesn't change anything? And don't talk about justice. Fucking evil humans do not deserve any about that. So did that Usudo you're talking about."

He chuckled once more. "You talked too much."

"I am saying that people can change." She said sternly. "If they choose to, they can."

"I am not getting you."

"I don't hope you will." She withdrew her other arm which was holding the kunai. "My mission is over. I really want to kill you and you're friends for pissing the hell out of me but," she gave him one last glare, "my mission do not include that."

And before he could react, she knocked the man unconscious, as to what she did to the others.

She stood up and ran a hand onto her hair, feeling all her energy drained out. She has three days before these nins woke up. So she didn't have to worry about them following her again.

She knew that those bastards deserved to die but as far as she knows, those three didn't do anything to harm someone. It was that Usudo who deserved to die.

'Damn straight.'

Besides, people can change. People deserve second chances.

Glancing for the last time toward the nukenins, she began her journey back to Konoha. If she's lucky, she could reach her home at noon.

'Fuck, we have all night to travel.'

XX

Her feet felt numb and sore. Fuck she didn't have to care. She could see the gates over the distance. She needed to keep moving. She grinned.

Ah, home sweet home. After two and a half fucking years at last…

With the last boost of her strength, she flared her chakra, hoping that someone would notice and try to assist her. She realized that any minute from now, she would collapse.

Over the distance, she saw someone running. Not recognizing who that was, all thanks to her blurry vision and dizziness, she put her defense on. A shinobi must not let his guard down.

"Sakura!" The man shouted. She immediately recognized him. Kotetsu.

"Yo, Kotetsu." She smiled as sincere as a tired ninja could manage.

Kotetsu looked up at her then down. He noticed how filthy she was, not to mention, the blood on her clothes and skin. She had an angry looking wound in her stomach and in her thigh. It was shocking that she was able to stand. "You looked pretty… nice."

Sakura glared at him as hard as a tired ninja could manage. "Well, after my recent mission, I encountered three happy and friendly looking nukenins, we had a very idle and surprisingly civil conversation and we decided to have a friendly fight," she said sarcastically. "The result is right in your front."

Kotetsu rolled his eyes. "That isn't what I mean." He walked beside her. "Are you able to walk?"

"That should be obvious right now."

He chuckled then draped an around her waist and they began walking towards the gate.

"It has been years, huh?" She thought aloud, enjoying the breeze of Konoha.

"It has." Kotetsu cursed the absence of Izumo in his mind as they passed the gates.

"Where's Izumo?" Sakura asked, searching for the man in question.

"Going to beat him again for lazing around?" He answered with a smirk.

"You're one to talk." She gave him her own smirk and a pointed look.

"He's on a mission, don't you worry."

"Really?" She sounded quite surprise. Izumo rarely went on missions. He usually guarded the gates, along with Kotetsu.

"Yeah, he kept on pissing Tsunade-sama about no decent work so he ended up with a broken rib and a C-Rank mission scroll on the face."

Sakura laughed at this. Now that's something she missed here in Konoha.

"And Tsunade-sama will be happy than drunken to see her apprentice again."

She grinned at him then stopped walking. "You can go back guarding the gates now. We don't want to deal with rogue nins appearing abruptly."

He gave her a pointed look.

"I can manage to go to the hospital alone." She blankly stated, trying her best to compose herself and her cool, which failed quite miserably as to Kotetsu's observation.

"Yeah, you looked nothing more than a half-dead kunoichi with pink hair." Kotetsu said as a matter of factly. "And what if you collapsed in an alley, who knows who'll go there, right?"

"And why the hell am I going to collapse in an alley?!"

"I am aware that little miss pink hair here doesn't want to collapse in the middle of the village, now does she?"

"Okay, point taken," she paused then fixed him a glare. "But –"

"Stay right here." Kotetsu led her to the nearest bench and she sat reluctantly. "And rest. You need someone to assist you."

"Don't make me wait then," she said dejectedly, knowing that Kotetsu wouldn't let her walk by herself in that state.

"Yeah, yeah." Kotetsu turned to his back and waved a hand as he began walking toward his station. But he paused suddenly at a good distance before glancing over his shoulder. "By the way, Sakura…"

Sakura looked at him curiously, waiting for him to continue.

"Welcome home."

She smiled sincerely in return, watching as Kotetsu made his way back to the gates.

When Kotetsu was gone, she sighed deeply and wondered if things would work out well now that she was home.

She needed time to move on after her losses that's why she demanded for a year-long mission. Now after two years and a half, she didn't know if she had moved on.

Well, at least she was able to control her emotions now. All she needed to do was not to think about them anyway. Plain and simple.

'Plain and simple, ha, beat me.'

She looked around her and found that she was seating on the same bench where Sasuke had knocked her off, the bench where Naruto knocked her off.

She glared at the offending bench momentarily before muttering filthy things under her breath, cursing the Uchiha and the Uzumaki right there and then.

Dismissing and stopping herself to think another unnecessary and nonsense thought, Sakura touched her stomach unconsciously and found out that it was wet. She looked down and saw the blood stains on her hand.

"Fuck." She cursed. She had no healing chakra left in her system to keep herself from bleeding and now that the effect was wearing off, the blood and the pain came out of her body. She gritted her teeth to keep herself from screaming and stood up.

The sudden careless gesture stopped her, tons of unbearable physical pain shot through her body and it took her some moments to keep her breathing even. No need to panic, damn it.

She sat down carefully, thinking of the possible solutions to get out of this predicament.

Tilting her head side to side, she noticed that there were no people around and if she screamed, she doubted Kotetsu would hear her.

She had enough strength to make a run to the nearest hospital no chakra required but if she does that, she might ended up collapsing on her way or worst, dying because of blood loss.

She cursed and ended up with the last solution. Realizing that she had still chakra in her system enough to attract fellow shinobi, she flared said energy and boosted it to its fullest.

She panted heavily and waited for someone to come. Not for long, a figure appeared over a distance. She realized it was a he and he was running to her.

'Thank you, heavens. We are not going to die. Yet.'

"Damn, is that you Sakura?"

'Is there any other kunoichi here with pink hair?'

She didn't answer while trying to recall the guy's name. It was familiar but because of her two and a half year-long mission, she almost forgot the sound of the voices of her fellow shinobi.

She couldn't look at him because her eyelids felt so heavy. She felt him lifting her bridal style and she hissed at the pain.

"We're going to the hospital now." He stated and began walking, carefully clutching the pinkette. "You looked pretty nice."

'Yeah, we heard that like two times.'

Finally, she saw a glimpse of his face. Bored expression. Half-lidded eyes. Black hair in high ponytail. Smirking face.

"Shikamaru?"

"Ah, Sakura is so troublesome."

'Yep, that's definitely the lazy ass genius.'

Shikamaru looked down at her and smiled slightly. "Welcome home."

But before she could say something, Shikamaru quickened his pace and began running toward the hospital, leaving her to mutter several prayers hoping for dear life.

So, end of the first chapter. Just tell me what you think about it, okay? Chapter 2 and 3 were done! I'll upload it if you want me to. Thank you for reading ^^

Read and review!


	2. Mission

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And this is Chapter 2, yay~ :D I actually do not know the guy I'll be pairing with Sakura here. At first, I thought it was a SasuSaku fic but I have so many ideas I do not know what's the pairing! Sorry for the confusion… But this story is mostly SasuSaku fic. Please still read this. Thank you!

**WARNING: **Foul language and OCCness of the characters.

**DISCLAIMER: **I OWN nothing, except the plot and the grammar plus spelling errors.

.

"Talking"

'Inner Sakura'

_Flashback_

* * *

**.**

**Chapter II: Mission**

**.**

_"Naruto, don't leave!" She yelled over a distance. Said blonde was walking toward the gates, a bag was strapped against his back._

_Naruto stopped in his tracks and a gust of midnight wind blew passed them. He didn't say anything._

_"Leave and I'll report about this to Tsunade-shishou." She threatened, her voice dangerously low. Naruto took another step and she yelled at him again. "Make one move again and I will scream."_

_"Sakura," Naruto breathed, dropping the suffix purposely. He knew Sakura wouldn't let him go this easily. "I have to do this."_

_"No, you haven't. So get your ass over here and let's go home." Sakura growled, waiting for him to move but all he did was stand there. "Naruto, don't make me repeat myself."_

_"I need to do this, Sakura-chan." He said, not moving. "I need to get him back."_

_"So, it's all about him again, huh?" Sakura walked toward him. "We don't need that bastard, Naruto! Look at what he did to Konoha… to us!" She stopped right directly behind him._

_"He's still a part of the family. We need him back."_

_Sakura grabbed his shoulder and spun him around harshly. She noticed his saddened expression, not the cheerful ones she was used to see. "Naruto…"_

_"I will get him back, Sakura-chan. I made a promise and I will fulfill it no matter what." He answered softly._

_"No," she stated firmly, tears were pricking down in the corners of her eyes but she refused to let them fall. "I don't need him. We don't need him. So, stay." Damn it, she couldn't bear losing Sasuke but she managed to move on somehow, with the help of Naruto of course. But, now that Naruto was the one who is leaving, she was sure she couldn't bear the pain and loss anymore. "Don't you dare leave me."_

_"I am not leaving you, Sakura-chan. You know I can't. I won't. I promise but you know that I need to do this, right?"_

_She began crying. The sound of her sobs made his heart ached. To make Sakura cry was the last thing he wanted to do. To make her cry was unforgivable._

_She shook her head as an answer. "I can't bear losing Sasuke and it will kill me if I lose another special person in my life, Naruto. So, stay."_

_Naruto suddenly pulled her in an embrace. She held him tight, not wanting to let him go. "I'll be back. I promise. And when I come back, I bring teme with me. Don't you want that to happen? Team 7 will be complete again." He tried to smile._

_"Kakashi-sensei is there," she began, sobbing. "As well as you and Sai. The both of you are enough for me already. Sasuke is… Sasuke is –"_

_"Shush, Sakura-chan," he comforted her, rubbing her back soothingly. "Everything will be alright. Kaka-sensei will keep an eye of you when I'm absent. He won't leave you alone."_

_"No, Naruto," she began begging while hugging him tighter. "You will stay. You have to stay…"_

_"Sakura…"_

_"Goddamn it, Naruto! Nobody is telling you to do this fucking thing so just don't!"_

_Naruto snaked his hand behind her neck and pulled her closer to him. He kissed her on the forehead. "I'll get his ass back here. I promise. And I'll be back… with him… with Sasuke…" He locked gaze with her. "So, don't worry. I will be back. You know I will, right?"_

_She shook her head and hugged him more, if that's even possible. Naruto hugged her back. "I need to go, Sakura-chan."_

_She shook her head._

_"I made a promise and I am going to fulfill it, for Kaka-sensei, for Konoha, for you… For us."_

_She shook her head, barely forming coherent words._

_They stayed like that for a few more seconds before she felt him charging chakra to his fingertips. Her eyes widened at the realization that he would knock her out for good._

_But before she could do or say something, Naruto shut her consciousness off and left her on the bench just like what Sasuke did when he left her._

_"I'm sorry, Sakura-chan," were his last words before he disappeared in her life._

Sakura stirred as the sun rays hit her face. She opened her eyes sluggishly and immediately noticed the white ceiling and the smell of medicine surrounding her.

'Hospital. Great.'

She lifted herself to sit but stopped when she felt a surge of pain in her stomach area. Looking down, she noticed the bandage that wrapped around her stomach; stains of blood were quite visible. She growled.

"Just lay down. You are not entirely healed yet, Sakura." She heard a very familiar voice from her left. She turned her head to the side and found the silverette Jounin.

"Kakashi-sensei," she said softly, her eyes igniting with longing, excitement and relief. She told her brain to keep her emotions but still, she hadn't seen him in years so hugging him or something wouldn't hurt, right?

Kakashi's visible eye crinkled, a sign that he was smiling. "I told you that you're not my student anymore."

"But I am used to it," she managed to scowl to emphasize her point.

Kakashi sighed. "It makes me feel old."

"But you are old!" Not wanting to cause anymore pain to her injured body if she laughed hard, she giggled softly at her own remark.

"It is only thirty-three, geez." Kakashi defended himself.

She smiled wholeheartedly and averted her eyes at the ceiling as she lied down on the bed again. "How are you, Kakashi? It's been years, huh?"

"Yes, it has." He responded. "I'm doing well. Don't you worry."

She let a small smile. "I thought so." She looked up at him and smiled, it was sincere this time. "Come here, please?" Kakashi casted her a baffled look but he walked over and sat next to her. She spread her arms wide and nodded. Kakashi sighed dejectedly but leaned down to hug her. "I missed you, Kakashi-sensei."

He ignored the honorific address she used and pulled her even closer to him. "Same here, Sakura." They pulled a moment later and Kakashi took his former seat. "I see that in such years, you grew in so much a woman, eh, Sakura?" To emphasize, he looked at her up and down.

She blushed and glared at him. "Kakashi!" She jolted to sit, pain forgotten, and stared in huge disbelief at the orange book he was now holding. "You still are a pervert," she growled lowly. "Put that book away from me! And where did you get that anyway?!"

'That's Kakashi-sensei for you…'

Kakashi gave her a sincere laugh. "Why, Sakura? Can't I be mature sometimes?"

"It's not about maturity! It's about foolishness!"

"You're a grown woman. I can do whatever I want in front of you without feeling self-conscious."

She huffed and turned away from his gaze. "It is just inappropriate, Kakashi. If Naruto is here, then– " She stopped immediately, here eyes glistening with sadness and in anger. "Never mind. I need to rest." She grabbed the blanket and covered herself, lying down on the bed again.

Kakashi patted her head and smiled. "You'll be free from the sadness of past, Sakura. I assure you that." He stood up and walked towards the door. He gave her one last glance. "Now, sleep. Tsunade-sama will summon you once you are able to do so. Ja." By that, he left the room.

Sakura wondered about what he said earlier_. 'You'll be free from the sadness of past, Sakura. I assure you that.'_

What does he mean by that?

'Forget it. I bet he'd just read it from his pervert book.'

She just shrugged the thought before drifting into sleep.

XX

"Is that so?"

"Don't worry, I didn't kill them."

"And what if they were eaten by wild carnivorous animals? You left them in the middle of the forest for Kami's sake, not to mention, unconscious."

"They'll wake up eventually…"

"After three days, yeah right."

"But I don't want them chasing after me. I was running low in chakra."

"Yep, still didn't convince me…"

"Yeah, okay, I sort of kill them if that's what you want to hear from me right now."

Tsunade landed her now empty flask on the table and looked at the pinkette who crossed her arms and was frowning. "I firmly remembered including the "'not engage with the other shinobi' in the mission scroll, Sakura."

Sakura rolled her eyes. After two and a half fucking years, this is what she'd get from her mentor, not to mention, surrogate mother? "I can't believe it. After two and a half years, is this what I'd get from my oh so favorite teacher?"

'Beats me.'

Tsunade poured another flask of sake and drunk the addictive alcohol in one gulp before giving her apprentice a hard look. "Do you want another mission then, huh?"

'For fuck's sake. Can't a kunoichi with pink hair have some peace and rest?'

"Tsunade-sama!" Shizune exclaimed beside the Hokage. "Sakura deserved a little rest!"

'Let's make Shizune the next Hokage, then.'

Tsunade rolled her eyes and poured herself another flask.

Sakura gave the ravenette a small smile but stayed silent. She handed her shishou a scroll. Tsunade took it from her and began reading it. Her eyes glistened and a minuscule smile graced her lips. "Not bad… You actually did well."

Sakura smirked slightly. It is very rare for Tsunade to compliment her apprentice's skills and abilities.

"And you make that old buffoon to agree with my terms?"

"Yeah," Sakura smiled sheepishly. "It just took me two months to convince him."

"Impressive." Tsunade put the scroll in her drawer before picking another scroll. She handed it to Sakura who took it curiously. "About the mission…"

"Shishou! You are not serious, are you?!" She suddenly put the scroll back to the Hokage's desk.

Tsunade gave her a hard look.

"No way, you're serious?!"

The blonde woman sighed and rubbed her temples. "This mission is much fitted for you, Sakura."

"Yeah, I heard the same when you gave me the last mission in Iwa!"

Tsunade poured another flask, ignoring Sakura's protests.

"If this is about medical ninja thingy, please send Ino-pig."

"She's due to another mission the next day with Shikamaru and Chouji."

"What about Hinata!?"

"Still on the mission with Shino and Kiba."

"And Tenten?"

"Tenten is not a medical ninja, you supposed to know that."

"Then send Shizune."

Shizune gave Sakura a look that resembled a glare.

"Fine, I'll send her. You do the paperwork."

Sakura face palmed. Oh, how she hated paperwork. She sighed. She knew she will lose. She lost in every argument she had with her shishou. She never wins. "Is it urgent?" She lazily picked the scroll again.

"Not entirely." Tsunade said, smirking that her apprentice accepted the mission at last. She knew Sakura needed to rest but she couldn't actually say no to Kazekage.

Sakura opened the scroll and read its contents. "A mission to Suna, huh?"

Tsunade smirked. Shizune jolted her head towards Sakura, a bright smile on her face. "So, how are you and Gaara-sama doing?"

Sakura snapped toward the ravenette and she blushed at the mention of the redhead. "What do you mean?"

"Oh, Sakura! Don't act innocent! Last time before you left, I heard that you and Gaara-sama were dating!" Shizune giggled.

Sakura didn't say anything. She blushed furiously. She almost forgot about that.

"Shizune." Tsunade snarled and said woman silenced at the silent threat. The Hokage gazed toward the pinkette again. "Gaara is having troubles at nights again. I want you to deal with it."

"Do I have to do it?"

"I told you that you are fitted to do it." Tsunade scowled when the bottle of sake gone empty. "Besides, your relationship with Gaara will make everything a lot more easier. And there is another issue to talk about with the Kazekage."

"It will make a lot more difficult!" Sakura complained, ignoring the last statement. "And we don't have any relationship!"

Tsunade smirked. "My words are final. You'll depart after three days."

"But –"

"See you later, Sakura. You're dismissed."

Sakura gritted her teeth, clenched her fists and went toward the door.

"Don't worry; I'm sure Gaara missed you. Just be ready. He seemed mad last time when you left him without even saying goodbye."

Sakura froze and a shiver ran down her spine from Tsunade's words. She quickly left the room.

'Gaara will kill you.' Inner she laughed hysterically.

"Yeah, beats me."

* * *

Sorry. I know it is a short and lame chapter.

How'd you like the GaaSaku pairing here? I am planning to pair this couple because, honestly, I always ship GaaSaku pairing. There's a little 'past' about the two. You find out later in the next chapters.

Thank you for reading.

Read and Review!


	3. New Jutsu

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Chapter 3 for those who read my story and told me it was great. I totally appreciate the compliments. I somehow feel sheepish about it but I am very grateful about your reviews. This Chapter is longer than the last but I think there's no exciting in here but please, still read, okay? Thank you!

**WARNING: **Foul language and OCCness of the characters.

**DISCLAIMER: **I OWN nothing, except the plot and the grammar plus spelling errors.

"Talking"

'Inner Sakura'

_Flashback_

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* * *

**Chapter III: New Jutsu**

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She spent her last two days in luxury. For the first day, she went to a hot spring, did her nails and hair, and went to chat with Ino who told her that she and the lazy ass were dating for one year now. They went to the bar at night with Tenten and got drunk to their heart's content. She told her friends about her mission to Suna and they were all blabbing about her and Gaara's relationship. She glared at them to death.

The second day, she woke up with the motherfucker of all hangovers and decided to walk around the village. She stopped at the Ichiraku's for some breakfast, pushing Naruto and Sasuke thoughts to the deepest corner of her brain. At noon, she went to Tsunade and demanded someone to be with her in the mission. Tsunade was slightly taken aback at the request but gave her permission to choose. She suggested every shinobi possible but unfortunately, some of them were unavailable. In the end, she was paired with Genma.

She went to his apartment, well Kakashi and he were sharing so the apartment was technically theirs, and she met with a bone crushing hug from the said senbon-sucking Jounin. Kakashi was lying on his bed, reading his pervert book and totally ignoring the two.

She spent the rest of her day in the apartment and by the night, she bid them goodbye and strolled down the whole village to get something to eat. She didn't feel like going home.

At ten, she went to the gates to thank Kotetsu. She also brought him dango. She didn't expect Izumo there and when he saw her, he gave her another bone crushing hug. She spent the rest of the night talking and chatting with them, and beating Izumo.

And now it was her last day. It was noon and she was walking toward Ichiraku's for lunch. She didn't want to go there but her feet dragged her there for an unknown reason.

She was supposed to report to Tsunade this morning but surprisingly, the Hokage was absent and she heard from Shizune that her mentor was in the emergency room, healing some badly injured shinobi.

She wondered who the badly injured shinobi was. If that shinobi needed Tsunade, then he or she was in seriously bad condition, more like fifty-fifty condition.

She was snapped from her thought when a bark rang to her ears.

Looking up, a white flash appeared in front of her and the next thing she knew was she was pinned on the ground.

"What the –"

A tongue licked her cheek and she met Akamaru, hovering above her.

'You make someone fell in love with you who had the bushiest brow ever and now you are hooking up with a dog.'

Sakura smiled and petted the dog behind his ear. "Akamaru! Good seeing you again!" She touched its head. Akamaru continued licking her but she didn't seem to mind.

"Okay, that's enough, Akamaru," a voice was heard behind the dog. "Sakura isn't a lollipop."

Akamaru whined but remove his body from Sakura. Slowly, she pushed herself to sit and she found Kiba beside the white dog. "Kiba."

Kiba gave her a wolf grin and offered his hand to help. She took it gladly and he pulled her into her feet. "You're back."

"Yeah, how're you doing?" She dusted herself.

"Just finished a damn hard mission. So, how is your too lengthy mission?" Kiba rubbed Akamaru unconsciously.

Sakura laughed. "Oh, it's a long story."

"We have all the day, haven't we?"

Sakura considered this for a moment as she observed him with her medic eyes. If he had been with a damn hard mission, his body would need rest and –

"Hey," Kiba cut her musing, "don't stare at me with medic eyes. I'm totally fine, you know."

She put a hand on her hip and gave him a hard look. "A broken rib, sore leg muscles and nine bone fractures? Wow, that is totally fine." She said sarcastically.

Kiba's jaw almost dropped on the floor. What the… How can she… Is she… Wow.

Without waiting for his reply, Sakura dashed to the Ichiraku Ramen, ordered two steaming bowl of ramen, went back to Kiba with said bowls in hand, dragged him and dashed toward the training grounds.

XX

"Alright." Sakura punched Kiba slightly in the arm. But Kiba still yelped in pain.

"You really need to do that?"

"Just to make sure that everything's fine under there."

Kiba rolled his eyes and resume eating his lunch. Sakura grabbed her own bowl and began eating as well.

They were silent for a moment before Sakura broke it. "So, how damn hard is this mission?"

Kiba looked at her for a moment; his face had spots of soup and whatsoever from the ramen. He went back devouring his ramen, maybe contemplating for an answer.

Sakura wondered if Kiba was obsessed like Naruto when it comes to ramen. She shook her head and thought it was impossible. Kiba must be really that hungry.

"You judge," Kiba downed the last content of his ramen before putting the bowl down on the ground. He wiped his face and mouth before leaning against the tree. "Deal with five nukenin from Ame –"

"… seems not that hard."

"– and an Akatsuki member."

"What?!" Sakura snapped toward him immediately. She noticed that Kiba was frowning and glaring at the sky, as if remembering some bad memories.

"You heard me." He growled.

"Who's the Akatsuki?"

"Kisame."

She didn't know what to say. Kiba was mad. It was obvious in his face.

"I am lucky that these injuries were all I got. I want to say the same thing to Shino but Hinata…"

"What happened to her?" She asked instantly and worriedly.

Kiba sensed her worries. "Don't worry, she's fine now. Tsunade-sama dealt with it."

Sakura considered this and sighed in relief. But still, if they dealt with an Akatsuki member … No, Kiba said Tsunade had dealt with it so everything is fine now.

Kiba still sensed the worry in her expression so he decided to change the subject. "Tell me, Sakura…"

She looked at him curiously but the worry was still present. He wondered if he saw anger as well.

"How can you tell my injuries without actually examining me physically?" He asked.

She tilted her head to the side, as if having no idea about his inquiry.

"I mean, you have to touch me or something like that but what you did a while ago, you just stared at me and voila! You know the rest."

Sakura got what he meant. He was talking about her new jutsu. Well, it's not that new because she mastered it ten months ago. "Oh, you mean the Igaku no Shiryoku no Jutsu?"

"The… what?"

"It's my latest jutsu, the Medical Eyesight Technique. It helps me scan my patient's injuries when I surround my eyes with medical chakra. But, the injuries are all I can see. Nothing more." She explained with a shrug.

"That's cool, you know." Kiba gave her a grin. "How'd you master it anyway?"

"It took me one and a half months to complete and master the technique," she explained with a small smile, remembering her training. "But with complete chakra control, it'll be easy as breaking a tree in half."

"Breaking a tree in half still is hard…" Kiba mumbled. He stood up and flexed his body. "At least, I'm fully healed now. Thanks, Sakura!"

She stood up as well. "It's nothing."

Akamaru appeared behind Kiba and he rubbed his nose against his waist, as if saying something. Kiba rubbed him behind his ears as the Inuzuka gave Sakura one apologetic smile. "I remember that I needed to report to the Hokage."

"Is that so?" Sakura looked around and found a figure of man from afar. "You better go."

"Yeah, I guess." Kiba gave her last one smile. "See you around, then. Thanks for the lunch and the healing and stuff! Ha. You're actually the bestest medic here."

Sakura grinned, feeling sheepish at the praise. "Nah, I told you, it's nothing."

Then Kiba's expression turned in complete seriousness. His expression held some sort of warning or precaution. Wondering for a moment if he would eat her, Sakura winced slightly when Kiba grabbed her shoulder. "Sakura…"

"Y-Yes?" Damn, you're not supposed to stutter!

"Be ready always. If something precious does return back, I want you to accept it."

She didn't have any idea what was he talking about but she nodded anyways.

"Don't let your negative emotions bottle up. Erase them all, leave the positives. Do you understand?"

'Wow, Kiba really is talking like he's some sort of a monk or Mr. I-Give-Wisdom guy…'

She nodded again, quite afraid if she said no he would eat her there and then. Kiba grinned again; his serious facade disappeared in just blink of an eye.

He didn't give her time to respond as began running toward the Hokage Tower. "Good luck to you!"

"Yeah, send Hinata my hello, too!" Sakura shouted and waved her arm.

Kiba waved back then he disappeared along Akamaru. Sakura walked toward the man she found. She called him. "Hey, Neji!"

Said man in question turned around, Byakugan activated, and immediately recognized the kunoichi with pink hair. "Haruno Sakura."

She rolled her eyes as she stopped in front of him. "You don't have to say my complete name, you know."

He gave her a hard look. "You are back."

"And that should be obvious right now."

He glared at her.

She raised her hands in a defending manner. "Chill, Neji. Aren't you happy that I'm back?"

Sakura used to tease Neji even before she left. He was so fun to tease and Neji seemed to be mad at her when she wasn't intimidated by his glares and hard looks. She thought at first that he was cold and smirking freak like some certain chicken-ass bastard but when they were assigned in a same mission, she discovered that Neji was not that so bad. He was cool and she enjoyed teasing him.

Neji scoffed and crossed his arms.

"Seems not happy to see me, huh?" Sakura said. "Ha. You're no fun. Please at least pretend that you are happy."

The Hyuuga didn't answer.

Sakura rolled her eyes.

'A silent Neji was a no fun Neji.'

"So, where's Tenten?" She asked, looking around to search the woman in question.

"She is at the academy," was his short answer.

"Oh, right. She is teaching genin, I forgot." She shifted her weight to the other side. Maybe, Neji could help her. "Do you have something to do this very moment?"

Neji considered thinking about it. Last time he heard that from her, she pulled a prank on him and he was very tempted to murder her that moment. "If you do wish to prolong your merciful life, Haruno Sakura, do not tempt my temper and do not include me to your childish and nonsense doings again." He hissed through gritted teeth.

Alarmed, Sakura stepped back, smiling nervously. "Chill, Neji, I will do nothing of the sort." He seemed unconvinced as he walked closer to her. Not good, she thought.

'Make a run now, then.'

Sakura gasped when her back hit the tree, Neji was still advancing toward her. Think, Sakura, think!

'Or do not think any at all.'

"What is it that you desire to do with me?" Neji asked, his voice dangerously low.

'Just tell him the truth.'

"Err," she started, looking very sheepish. "I am thinking if you can come with me to shop for weapons."

Neji stopped abruptly. He was a meter or two away from her.

Sakura began panicking inside. He stopped advancing to her and he was silent. Maybe he was contemplating how to kill me. Damn.

'Say something to save your ass now.'

And so she did. "You know, Tenten is fitted at the task because of weapons and stuff but we know that, unfortunately, she was not here… And so I thought that you can come with me instead because you, uh, knew Tenten more and we both know that you knew weaponry better than I do. So… yeah, I think you got it. So, what do you say, friend?" She smiled sweetly, well as sweet as a nervous ninja can do.

Neji blinked before absorbing what she had said. He would have laughed at her while clutching his stomach and rolling in the floor at the sight of her panicking but because he was a Hyuuga, a decent, cool Hyuuga, he just smirked at her and turned around. At least, she still feared him at some point.

Oh, what an amusement…

He motioned her to follow and she did. She wondered what he was smirking about. Oh, well, at least she made him to come with her.

XX

"Thanks, Neji."

"Hn."

"So, you wanna come inside and have some tea?"

"My thanks but I will not impose." Neji declined politely. "I need to go back patrolling."

"Is that so? Well, good luck then."

"I say the same to you." Neji paused, uncertain. "Do you mind if I inquire something?"

Sakura looked at him curiously. "What is it?"

"For what reason do you always have to mask your chakra?"

Sakura was taken aback the slightest bit. So he noticed…

'Of course he did. He's Neji, hello, the one who belong to the Hyuuga, the one with the Byakugan, the eyes that can detect and see chakra, if this information escaped your notice, why thank you.'

"I am used to mask my chakra always, that is. It's like a defensive mechanism." She said as if it was the most natural thing to say,

"Someone has been troubling you, hasn't it?"

"Huh? No, no. There's no one troubling me." She was a little surprise at the accusation.

He didn't answer and seemed unconvinced.

"Really, there's no one. I am telling the truth."

He crossed his arms.

"You've got to believe me!" Sakura convinced him.

"Fine, if that is what you want."

Sakura smiled then a thought sprouted in her mind. "Eh, Neji is actually concerned about little Miss Haruno?"

Neji glared at her and gave her the start-teasing-me-again-and-you-will-be-a-dead-kunoichi-with-pink-hair look.

Sakura accepted the challenge as she mocked knocking at an invisible door in front of him. "Hello," she said in a mockery tone, "is Neji there? I wanna speak to him, please?"

"Sakura." He warned.

She laughed softly. "Just kidding, you know." She peeked over his shoulder and saw the setting sun. "I think you should go. I don't want you blaming me when you arrive late at work, you know." She smiled.

He glared at him but nodded in understanding.

"See you around, I guess."

"Hn." Neji turned around, his back facing her. "Always give importance to the present, not the past." And just like that, he vanished, using that super fast ninja speed. She rolled her eyes, totally ignoring his last statement because Neji wouldn't say things like that or so she thought, and muttered something like 'not even say goodbye' and stuff like that.

Sakura shut the door behind her when Neji disappeared. Besides helping her choose for several weapons like kunai, shuriken, senbon, explosive tags, and the helpful smoke bombs, Neji tagged along when she purchased several medical supplies.

Much to her surprise, Neji insisted to walk her home. He said something about cool, decent Hyuuga should be a gentleman and something along those lines.

They spent few hours together and she would admit that she had fun with him. They talked about several things although she did most of the talking. He would either reply with a 'hn' or something that won't exceed ten words. But even though he was like that, she was more than used to it. Neji is Neji. In fact, she couldn't imagine a loud and talkative Neji in the first place. If she did, she would die laughing.

She grabbed the bag full of deadly weapon and the other bag full of life-saving medical tools and medicine. She wondered how ironic her skills were. One moment she could kill someone with her deadly strength and the second moment she could heal and save a life with her medical skills.

'Yeah, very ironic. But opposite really do attract, right?'

She placed the bags on the floor of her living room then stormed past her kitchen toward her bed room. She decided to take a bath.

After approximately twenty minutes, a fresh and fully cleaned Sakura emerged from the bathroom, holding a white towel. She stared at her reflection in the mirror and found several scars on her skin. She touched the biggest white scar on her stomach.

The scar was the result of her battle to death with Sasori. It was a bad memory. Because of her weakness, Chiyo-baasama had died. But still, she refused to heal the scar. The scar was the sign of her being brave, the sign that she was strong.

Smiling slightly to herself, she wrapped the towel around her body and proceeded to the living room to retrieve her medical supplies.

Nobody could enter her apartment so she felt free roaming around with nothing but a towel.

She saw the bags lying neatly on the floor and she went to grab it but the moment she touched the bag was the moment she saw two figures sitting on the couch.

Of course she shrieked.

After the shriek died down, Sai uncovered his ears and looked at her blankly. "You might wake up the whole neighborhood."

"What the hell are you doing here?!" She pointed toward the pale guy then to the other guy who had a senbon in his mouth. "And we're supposed to meet later at ten! So what the hell?"

Genma, as a humble and polite person, whistled at her.

Sai however, being the blunt he was, answered her verbally. "I think you will not prefer it screaming like that in that piece of cloth."

Sakura looked down at her body then she blushed furiously. She stormed toward her bedroom, yelling. "I'll kill you later, bastards! Just wait for me till I have my clothes on!"

Sai smiled in amusement and of course that was fake, not the amusement thingy while Genma laughed.

XX

Fully dressed with black shorts and white shirt, Sakura walked towards the living room and fixated the trespassers her deadliest glare.

Genma was lazily sitting on the couch and looked up at her with a halfhearted smile on his face. Sai however was sitting on the opposite corner and regarded her with a blank look.

She crossed her arm and leaned on the doorframe of the living room and the kitchen. "I don't know that five thirty in the afternoon is the new ten o'clock in the evening!"

"Geez, Sakura, chill down. It's not like we're going to steal something from here or, more like, going to rape you. We're going to do nothing of those likes." Genma defended.

Sakura rolled her eyes and took the seat in the space between the two shinobi.

"Besides," Sakura turned to Sai, "I honestly do not rape ugly women…" And he smiled.

Three…

Two…

One…

'Kill that dick now. Kill him. NOW.'

Sakura lifted her fist, without chakra or else some pale guy shinobi would be dead, and using that super fast ninja speed, punched the smiling Sai straight to his jaw.

Sai slammed himself to the nearest wall.

'Shannaro! Take that, dickhead!'

Genma whistled in amusement and smirked. Oh, damn, that will leave a big purple bruise afterward.

Sakura gave Sai one last glare before going to the kitchen. "Want some tea, guys?"

"Jasmine." Genma said, ignoring the ruckus.

Sai approached the couch again while rubbing his aching jaw. "Green tea."

Sakura vanished in the living room right after.

Genma eyed the bags on the floor. He picked one and took a thing inside. It was a kunai. "Pretty nice weapons you got here, Sakura."

Sai, in curiosity, picked the other bag and found that it was filled with several medical tools, pills and medicine. "Medical stuff…"

"Yeah, I shopped earlier. How'd you find them?" Sakura asked from the kitchen.

Genma scraped his finger slightly along the pointed part of the kunai and smirked when it began bleeding. "Think you have Tenten when you shopped. These weapons are good."

"I'm planning to bring Tenten with me, but she's out so I took the Hyuuga instead." Sakura appeared in the living room with a tray.

Genma raised an eyebrow. "Neji, huh? Guess not it's a wonder."

Sakura poured Genma his jasmine tea and Sai his green tea. Sakura wanted to laugh at the big bruise mark on the artist's face but couldn't stop herself from feeling a little guilty.

She occupied the space between Sai and Genma then turned towards the ANBU. Wordlessly, she charged healing chakra to her fingertips and drew her palm towards Sai's bruised face. After several seconds, the bruise was gone and Sai casted her a blank and yet confused look.

"I don't want to heal that," Sakura waved her hand in dismissing manner. "But I think I should, you know." She smiled afterward.

Sakura picked the bags and stood up. "How did you get in? I didn't forget to lock the door…"

Genma casually held his cup and sipped his tea. "Well, there's this old lady with a key…"

"Fuck off, Genma!" She glared at him. "You are worse than Kakashi!"

Genma laughed and rubbed his face with his finger. "Guess that Hatake is influencing me with his lazy excuses. I don't even know if those are contagious."

Sakura rolled her eyes and noticed the blood stains on Genma's face. "What the hell? Why do you have blood on the face?"

Genma states at her confusingly before getting what he meant. "Oh, it's nothing," he waved a hand then wiped his face with his sleeve. "I used this to measure how good your new weapons are." He lifted his bleeding finger to prove his point.

Sakura scowled, put the bags down and walked over Genma. Using the Igaku no Shiryoku Jutsu, she immediately saw the wound. It wasn't fatal, nor was it deep. It was less than a tiny scratch.

And using the same jutsu, she stared at the wound for a second and it began to heal. In just a blink of an eye, said scratch disappeared. Sakura smirked, satisfied at her work.

Without waiting for their amazed comment or response, Sakura picked her bags again and walked towards her bedroom, muttering something about 'going to sleep' and 'wake me up if I overslept' and something along those lines.

Then they heard a door being shut.

"What was that about?"

Genma stared at his newly healed finger as if it had grown a face. "Did she just heal-stare at my finger?"

Sai shrugged and sipped his tea. "I believe so."

XX

Sakura gathered all her ninja and medical tools on her bed. After sealing said tools in a scroll, she went to pack the necessary pills such as soldier pills, blood replenishing pills, food pills and other medical tablets.

After all these preparations, the bed seemed so appealing to her. Flopping down on the bed, she mental noted herself to wake up before ten in the evening to double check her things.

What would she do upon meeting the former love of her life in Suna?

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And Chapter 3 is done! I know, I know. It's lame. I have to tell you the new jutsu of Sakura. I made it myself. Igaku no means Medical and Shiryoku is Eyesight so yeah, you got the idea. This jutsu will come in handy in the next chapters.

So this jutsu can detect injuries by just looking at it and it can heal by just looking at it. Let me know your confusions and questions and what you think about the story.

Thank you!

Read and Review, 'kay?


	4. Unexpected Outcome

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Here is Chapter 4 for you. I hope you are still interested about this crappy story. I read your reviews so yeah, I'll be posting Chapter 2 to 5 for you, lovely readers. :)

**WARNING: **Foul language and OCCness of the characters.

**DISCLAIMER: **I OWN nothing, except the plot and the grammar plus spelling errors.

"Talking"

'Inner Sakura'

_Flashback_

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**Chapter IV: Unexpected Outcome**

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_"Sakura, you just came back from a mission. You should rest." Tsunade stated with her voice firm and stern._

_Sakura shook her head. "Naruto is out there, spending all his life to get Sasuke back. I should do the same by getting stronger, shishou." She was worn out and exhausted, she knew that very, very well but she couldn't just rest and relax while her best friend was risking his life outside the village._

_"I understand your point," Tsunade pointed out, "I am just telling you not to overstrain your body lavishly." She was concern about her apprentice. Sakura just came back from a month-long mission with Kiba and, for what the Hokage had heard from their report, they fought two rogue ninjas on the way. She thanked Kami that Sakura was an ANBU and took the situation carefully with ease. But still, she knew they had a tough and rough fight back there, seeing Sakura's open wounds and broken ribs. Kiba, too, was severely tattered. Well not as severe as if his life might be in the line. It was severe enough that he couldn't walk or at least stand on his own._

_"Tsunade-sama is right, Sakura." Kiba interjected, his expression aggravated and it looked like he wouldn't give a shit. "Stop working and start resting." Sakura shook her head again, ignoring the both of them. "It's been three fucking years. Naruto still didn't come back." Kiba continued as he glared at Sakura's back. He wondered how she could stand with all those injuries. Well, she couldn't be an ANBU if she was weak and couldn't bear extreme pain. _

_But still, it was enthralling but in an infuriating way. She was so hardheaded and so stubborn for his liking. "As a matter of fact," Kiba continued, "we do not know what happened to that ass."_

_"Shut it, Kiba," she glared over her shoulder to the Inuzuka behind her. "I know Naruto is trying his best to get Sasuke back so shut it. You know nothing," she hissed through gritted teeth._

_"You know nothing as well," Kiba countered and glared at the pinkette as well. "Why don't just stop being a bitch and stop thinking about those bastards, huh? Stop acting and hoping that they will come back! You're waiting for three goddamn years for fuck's sake. Aren't you deadbeat enough?"_

_Sakura fissured her knuckles, Tsunade could just watch. "Naruto made a promise," she snarled. "And he won't break it no matter what." She knew that it wasn't good if her anger gets the better of her._

_"Great!" Kiba spat. "You are still yearning and hoping for that promise! It's been three years. Move on, Sakura!" He understood her losses. In fact, he was affected, too when Naruto left the village but he knew that Sakura should stop hoping for nothing. Her false hope would just lead her for more heartache._

_That's it, Sakura thought. She twirled rather harshly and flexed a kick at Kiba, but the brunette dodged it though barely. He jumped far enough from her and put his defense on, ignoring the pain from his injuries._

_"You can't understand me, Kiba. Why don't just shut your potty mouth and fucked off," Sakura snarled. "I do not even ask for your sympathy and assistance so why would you care?"_

_Kiba narrowed his eyes dangerously as he gritted his teeth. So she really didn't understand, huh? Well, he would make her understand… in a rough and painful way._

_By before he could do something, Tsunade decided to intervene before her office became a battlefield. "Stop it you two or you want me to stop you myself instead?" She threatened. She eyed both shinobi in front of her who were glaring to each other to death. "Sakura, you are suspended for a month, as well as you, Kiba."_

_Both protested but to no avail as the two continued their glaring to death contest._

_"And stop glaring, damn it! It's like dealing with genin again." Tsunade sighed exasperatedly then a hurried Shizune busted into the office._

_"Tsunade-sama!" The ravenette yelled, her expression was worried and disturbed. Sakura could tell that the older woman had no good news with her._

_"Oh great, just what I needed." The Hokage mumbled sarcastically and scowled at the woman. "What now, Shizune?"_

_Shizune placed a small pile of papers on top of the desk and inhaled as much oxygen she needed before speaking. "It is about Uzumaki Naruto."_

_Tsunade narrowed her brows and Sakura tried all her best not to strangle Shizune right there and then to spill the information she knew. Kiba's ears perked on instantly._

_"Kiba, Sakura, out." The Hokage ordered as she made shooing gesture towards the two._

_"But – "_

_"Now."_

_Sakura opened her mouth to protest but closed it instantly when Tsunade gave her an intent look, telling her that everything would be fine. Sakura sighed and left the room, behind her was a grunting Kiba and Akamaru._

_Twenty minutes had passed and, after chewing a soldier pill, Sakura healed Kiba's major wounds. The two shinobi were waiting outside the door of the Hokage's office. They decided to wait, well it's more like Sakura insisted Kiba to wait, as exchange for the healing and stuff._

_After several minutes of silence, Kiba flinched at the things he heard behind the doors. Sakura didn't fail to notice it and she asked him what the matter was._

_"Come on, I'll walk you home." Kiba offered with a grunt and grabbed her wrist before speeding towards her apartment._

_Sakura was confused, and slightly annoyed, but she knew better. She just shut her mouth and let Kiba in her apartment. She offered him a tea as she sat next to him in the couch._

_"What did you hear?" Sakura asked softly, clutching her cup of tea tightly. She narrowed her brows when he remained silent. "Kiba, what did you hear about Naruto?"_

_Kiba sighed and decided to tell Sakura everything he heard before it was too late. He gave Akamaru a silent message and Akamaru left her apartment, now staying outside to let nobody to interfere._

_"Naruto was found with the Uchiha." Kiba answered quietly._

_'Sasuke-kun,' she thought happily. 'Naruto did it finally!'_

_He could see from the corners of his eyes that her eyes lit up with happiness and relief but the next thing he would say would definitely break her apart._

_"Dead," he finished._

_Sakura snapped towards him immediately, she could hear the cracking of her neck. "E-Excuse me?"_

_He sighed. This would be tougher and harder and rougher than I thought. "The ANBU squad Tsunade-sama sent for searching Naruto saw his corpse being scorched by Amaterasu. But it wasn't from Sasuke; it was from that bastard Madara." Sakura was silent, which was actually a bad thing, but he decided to continue. "And Sasuke was with Naruto, cold and… lifeless."_

_At the last word he muttered, Sakura clutched him on the collar and with all her strength left, she pinned him to the nearest wall, as he expected. The shattering of the cups of tea and the worried howls of Akamaru were long forgotten._

_"What? Sasuke-kun and Naruto are… dead?" She snarled._

_Kiba could just stare down at her sympathetically. He couldn't blame her, though. She had loss another person in her life. First was Sasuke and now it was Naruto. "Yes," he answered shortly. "I'm sorry."_

_She raised a fist to punch him, as what he had expected. If Kiba was other person, he would've not let her beat him. But he was Kiba, one of the Konoha twelve, a friend of Sakura. He would accept her beatings if that would make her feel better. He closed his eyes and prepared himself to the chakra-infused punch._

_But it did not come. Instead, Sakura released him and she dropped on her knees, crying silently to herself._

_Uncertain what to do next, Kiba lifted her to the couch and let her cry to her heart's content._

_When Sakura fell asleep, he left her sleeping on the couch and cursed Naruto for leaving his teammate behind._

_That is the day when Naruto vanished from her life. She never actually thought that the words "I'm sorry, Sakura-chan," would be the last words she would heard from him._

Sakura opened her eyes when a gust of wind pushed itself to her open windows. She rubbed the sleepiness in her eyes and she found them wet. She had cried in her sleep. Again.

'Oh, joy.'

She dried her face and sighed, tilting her face to the side to meet with her clock. It read ten fifty pm. Fuck, I overslept. Stretching, she stood up and decided to eat.

Walking towards the kitchen, she heard voices from her living room. So, Genma and Sai were still here huh?

'They missed us so much they decided to live in here with us.'

Rolling her eyes, she grabbed an instant cup ramen, poured it with hot water and went to the living room. She found Sai and Genma playing some random card game.

"Straight flush." Genma muttered with a smirk, not knowing Sakura walked pass behind him.

Sai eyed Sakura. "Apologies, Genma-kun. I win." Sai dropped his cards. They indicated Royal Flush. Genma cursed.

"You suck, Genma."

Genma jumped at the sound behind him. Shaking his head, he made his way towards the pinkette and sat beside her. "Just very unlucky today…"

"Right," Sakura rolled her eyes and began eating. "I told you to wake me up before ten. Look it was now eleven pm."

"So, what," Genma shrugged. "We'll depart by twelve. It's not like you will go to a party to have leisure time to choose what to wear or something…"

"We are going on a mission," she held a much authorized voice. "Be punctual."

"Eager much to see the Kazekage?" Genma teased with a smirk.

"Hey! Stop that!" Sakura punched him on the arm and attempted to grab that senbon on his mouth. Genma laughed.

Sai returned the deck of cards to the shelf, ignoring the arguing couple behind him, and met with two picture frames. One was taken almost three years ago. It was a picture of Kakashi, Yamato, Naruto, Sakura and him. The other was taken during their genin days, with Sakura, Kakashi, Naruto and Sasuke. Did she know? He thought warily. With this photo of the former Team 7, there was a possibility that she knew it already.

Looking behind, Sai found Sakura casually chatting with Genma. He eyed the cup of ramen in her hands warily and decided to ask Sakura if she knew what had happened after she left.

But he wasn't sure yet if she knew.

If she knew, then everything would be just fine.

If she didn't, well… That's another story to happen.

But she still had the right to know. Besides, she would know eventually. The sooner she know, the greater it would cause her happiness and relief… or, if things didn't go right, pain. He didn't know exactly.

Taking the seat on the couch across the two shinobi, Sai put his fake smile and called for her attention. "Hey, Ugly…"

Sakura turned to him sharply with a glare. He would have laugh at the sight. Sakura actually did not changed, especially her temper. "I'm in no mood for sick jokes, Sai, so –"

"I am just conjecturing," Sai cut her off instantly, in his tone of complete seriousness. By the looks she was giving him, it seemed that she told him to continue though quite hesitant. "Why do you still keep the picture of Team 7?"

Genma's expression hardened. He also knew where this conversation would be heading to.

Sakura shrugged, missing her seatmate's reaction. "Oh, that? Just a reminder of the past…"

'We both know that there is more reason to it.'

"Can I inquire something, Sakura?" Sai responded quickly.

'He did not use the nickname! I am totally feeling nervous about it.'

Sakura gulped silently and motioned the pale ninja to continue.

"What would you do if one day, Naruto-kun and Sasuke-kun came back?"

Sakura froze instantly. Never had the time to think things such as that before…

_What would you do if one day, Naruto and Sasuke came back?_

This was such a nonsense question. But putting what's nonsense and what made sense aside, Sakura decided to contemplate for an answer.

What hurt could it bring by answering, right? Sasuke and Naruto were dead after all. She has nothing more to loose, actually.

If she's the same Sakura Haruno before, she would answer like this: I would hug them and welcome them open arms, of course. I would cry in joy in front of them and scold them nonstop for leaving me behind.

And because she was no longer the same Sakura Haruno before, she answered like this as she clenched her fists and gritted her teeth. "I'll kill both of them, that fucking Uzumaki and Uchiha," she hissed between clenched teeth.

She felt furious and mad all of the sudden. It seemed that all topics involving her former teammates always make her furious and mad.

She wanted them back, of course and she couldn't be happier about that but the fact that they left her behind, told her that she wanted them dead even more.

Naruto could just let her to come with him to get Sasuke back, but he just didn't.

Naruto, the only person who gave her strength and hope, left her just like how Sasuke left her. Maybe they were tired of her being their annoying, weak and pathetic teammate that's why they left her all alone. Ha, what a fucking reason…

Sai seemed a little put out, telling that it wasn't the answer he wanted to hear but he remained silent and let her continue.

"Those bastards… They should know better than leaving me behind all those fucking years. I'll kill them both with my bare fists, no chakra infused, they'll see…" She snarled the words with the promise of death.

Of course she would kill them. Didn't they know that they made her life miserable? They just brought her pain and misery. They always reminded her that she was weak, that she was just holding them back, and that she was nothing but to be protected.

Sasuke, the idiotic Uchiha, was the reason behind Naruto and her pain all these years since Sasuke left Konoha.

Sakura and Naruto tried bringing him back but that Uchiha tried to kill them not just once but many, many times since she could remember.

She got tired of believing that they could get Sasuke back. It was hopeless. They failed for many, many times before and she had grown tired of it. So she moved on, forgot her fucking love for him even though it was hard, and got stronger so she wouldn't be a burden to Yamato, Sai, Naruto and Kakashi.

She passed being an ANBU years ago. Kakashi was so proud, as well as Naruto, and she was happy and contented with her family, minus Sasuke of course. She was contented for what she has and she couldn't wish for more.

Until one day, Naruto claimed out of nowhere that he would get Sasuke back again, this time, alone. She had no idea what's gotten into the blond's mind. She tried to stop him but he knocked her out. After she told him how much she needed him, he left her to search for a person who never wanted to be found. Naruto left her lying on the cold bench in the cold night, just like what Sasuke did to her. Then, after that, she heard that they were now dead. All those years that she hoped for their comeback, it was all a big bullshit. Those bastards left her. They didn't care at all. They didn't.

"They didn't care at all," she said softly. "They left me behind, without knowing what I would feel. They didn't care if I feel lonely again… I… I was nothing to them."

"Nonsense, Sakura," She heard Genma beside her stated. "You know how much you mean to Naruto and Sasuke. You have no right to doubt yourself."

She had no idea what's on Genma's mind. All she could do was to stare at him.

"Genma-kun is right, Sakura. Naruto-kun was worried about you and your family, that is why he left to get Sasuke-kun. That way, he could complete your family again," Sai continued.

Sakura dropped her head and began chuckling. If Sasuke and Naruto cared for her, they wouldn't leave her.

The men looked at her, confused. "Stop it, you two," she said in between laughs. "Those two left me, end of story. And now they're dead. What's the use of hoping for their comeback anyway?"

Genma and Sai both tensed that Sakura missed.

Glancing at the wall clock, she stood up. "Genma, go get change. We will depart soon."

"I do not intend to bring up the depressing past, Sakura. I do apologize for my harsh words. Please – " Sakura cut Sai off by patting him on the shoulder.

She shook her head and showed a small smile. "It's okay. I had moved on. It is okay now."

But Sai knew she hadn't completely moved on yet. He could still seen the grief and mourn in her emerald orbs. And she could mask them completely.

That fact saddened him. She could hide her true feelings now and that way he couldn't help her deal with them anymore. She became distant when it comes to her true emotions. How sad.

She told them that she would get change now. After that, she went back to her room.

"That is very… unexpected, don't you think?" Genma asked.

Sai nodded. "Do you think she'll accept them?"

"Those two, eh?" Genma took out a scroll from his Jounin vest. "Maybe… She has to accept them anyway." He muttered something and his ANBU attire puffed above the scroll.

"What about the other two?"

"I doubt that," Genma removed his vest and the fishnet shirt underneath. "Knowing her, she would murder anyone who was an enemy to the village."

Sai couldn't help but to agree.

"But," Genma pulled on a black shirt, "she'll learn to accept them. After all, they were now a part of the village. They proved themselves although they were annoying."

"I am more than worried to the girl," Sai said. "Especially her relationship with –"

Genma raised a hand to stop Sai. "I know, right? Let's just not hope Sakura would murder anyone, especially how she answered your question earlier. She really did loath Naruto and Sasuke. That I didn't know why. She'll get used to it eventually…"

Sai was actually uncertain but he couldn't do anything about it.

"I think the Hokage knew about this…"

Sai looked at the Jounin, urging him to continue.

"Maybe she knew Sakura isn't ready yet so she gave her another mission, don't you think?"

"I think so," Sai answered softly. "Their team will be coming back tomorrow so the chances of them meeting Sakura will be slim."

Genma sighed in resignation. "I don't know if I want Sakura to see them or not…"

Sai did not answer, agreeing.

"But I'm sure as hell I want them dead."

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And end of Chapter 4. It's all about Sakura's thoughts. Yeah, she's mad at them. She even wanted to kill them. Let's just see if she can do that when the three original members of Team 7 will meet each other again!

Tell me what you think, 'kay? And feel free to ask questions. Thank you so much!

Read and Review!


	5. Unwanted Encounter

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Chapter 5 is here for everyone! I am glad about the positive feed backs of this crappy story. I'll do my best not to change the quality. And yeah, I'm planning a love triangle between Sasuke, Gaara and Sakura. Is it alright for you? If not, tell me 'kay? So I'll write a very satisfactory story for you. Thank you so much! And this chapter is shorter, yeah, I know… I apologize…

**WARNING: **Foul language and OCCness of the characters.

**DISCLAIMER: **I OWN nothing, except the plot and the grammar plus spelling errors.

"Talking"

'Inner Sakura'

_Flashback_

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**Chapter V: Unwanted Encounter**

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Thirty minutes before midnight, as Sakura read upon glancing at her desk clock, she walked towards her closet and reached for something to wear.

She removed all her clothes, inwardly thanking that she had taken a bath earlier. She glared at her bed, her mind drifted back to the conversation she had with Genma and Sai.

Why do they even bring up that, huh? It made no sense.

"Tsk. Fucking bastards…"

She put on her new white panties and bandaged her breast so they won't hurt during battles and fights. Inwardly thanking Sasori for the tough fight as she caressed her scar affectionately, she put on her spandex black shorts before putting a black ninja pants. She put a black fishnet shirt on before putting a gray sleeveless hoodie. She placed her red hitai-ate like a headband. She noticed that her hair had grown longer as she tied it into a messy bun. She pulled the hood on so her pink hair won't recognize.

She put on her ninja sandals before grabbing her weapon.

She strapped her hand-guard less katana behind her back, strapped her kunai pouch on her right outer thigh and placed her ninja bag behind her waist. Looking herself in the mirror, she grabbed her fox mask before leaving the room.

She found Sai and a completely dressed Genma standing outside the door. She approached them, locked her door and the three of them headed towards the gates.

XX

"Looking as intimidating as usual, Sakura." Izumo then let out a laugh; Kotetsu could just shake his head at the behavior of his partner. They were guarding the gates, as usual, when they spotted the ascending figures of Sai, Genma and Sakura. He found the pinkette and the senbon Jounin dressed in their complete ANBU attire so they probably will be doing a mission.

"You're very hardworking, aren't you?" Kotetsu said with a slight smirk.

There was a thunderclap on the far distance. "Kotetsu, Izumo, watch the tone." Sakura said, her voice hissed with the tone of complete authority.

The two guards immediately shut their mouth as if hearing an ultimatum.

Then Sakura laughed, so hard she bent over her knees. "I'm just kidding, you know!" She roared another laughter, "you should've seen your faces!"

Glaring at Sakura, the two guards couldn't help but watch her with relief. At least she wasn't the cold, distant Sakura who they knew almost three years ago. The mission had been a great help to her.

What if she meets them?

"You know, you could've let your hair down, Sakura," Genma said as he eyed her completely covered face, save for the fox mask which was hanging around her waist.

"Hell, no," Sakura managed to stifle her laughter as she straightened herself. "I think every shinobi recognize miss little pink hair. Better to hide it, I guess."

"So," Izumo drawled out curiously, "what mission is this now, huh?"

Both guard ninjas looked baffled when Sakura looked away with a small flush. Sai shrugged while Genma smirked. "Miss Little Pink Hair will meet Gaara-kun sooner," he mimicked Sakura's voice then laughed.

"Hey!" Sakura exclaimed while glaring at the senbon Jounin. Izumo and Kotetsu laughed. "My voice is not that screechy!" The laughter increased.

"You better hurry now," Kotetsu managed, "I'm sure Gaara-kun won't be pleased if you arrive late."

Sakura threw him a kunai and missed an inch, but it didn't unfazed Kotetsu as another laughter beamed through the silence of the night.

Despite the tease, Sakura found herself smiling at the sight before her. Ah, it's good to be home…

'Damn straight,' inner agreed, 'save for the fact that they're annoying as hell!'

"You looked really like a man in that outfit, Hag," Sai stated out of nowhere as he eyed her up and down. If it wasn't for her emerald orbs and feminine facial features, she would be mistaken as a man. Well, if she puts that mask, she transformed completely into a guy.

Her chest was completely hidden underneath her layers of clothes.

Sakura merely ignored the nickname as she was more used to hearing it. "I don't mind at all," she waved a hand, "besides, it is more comfortable than what Ino-pig wears…"

She engaged in a simple conversation with Izumo and Sai she missed Genma conversing with Kotetsu.

"Did you tell her?" Kotetsu asked, his voice above a whisper as if afraid Sakura might hear him.

Genma almost snorted. "Not yet, but we know she didn't like the sound of their comeback."

"How?"

"If she didn't want them dead," Genma fixed his eyes on Sakura, "she wanted to kill them herself."

Another thunderclap was heard.

"Oh, joy." Kotetsu said sarcastically. Genma approached Sakura as the pinkette winced at the sound of the thunderclap. And it wasn't because she was afraid at the thunder.

'Oh, joy. We'll be travelling under the fucking rain.'

Straightening herself, Sakura turned to Genma. "I think we should go."

Genma nodded in return.

Sakura gave Kotetsu and Izumo a slight hug then ran towards the pale ninja and hugged him tightly. "Take care of yourself."

"Don't have to remind me, Hag," Sai wrapped an arm around her then she pulled away after a moment.

"Just in case." She smiled and gazed over the guard gates. "So, I have to go. Again." She chuckled softly.

"Yeah, good luck to you."

"And kiss Kazekage-sama for me, okay?"

Sakura glared at Kotetsu. "Genma and I will be back when –" She stopped when she felt four faint and unfamiliar chakra signatures coming towards them. In reflex, she grabbed a kunai. The four nins eyed the reaction.

"What's the matter, Sakura?" Genma said in complete serious tone.

Though her chakra was completely hidden, Sakura could detect the faint chakra signatures clearly. They were about a hundred meters or so, so she gazed towards the forest to find them. "Someone's coming, or should I say, four unknown shinobi are coming." Unfortunately, she found none but darkness, frowning.

They were now ninety-five meters. Wow they're slow…

There was a silence for a few minutes then Genma managed to detect their chakra signatures. His eyes widened and the other three nins noticed it. Their body tensed up, realizing who they were. Sakura, however, was too occupied to recognize those chakra signatures she missed the commotion behind her.

Genma tugged Sakura by the arm. "Come on, we should go, Sakura."

Sakura shrugged her arm to remove herself from his grasp. "Wait, some ninjas are coming. Who are they? Do you know them?" Her voice had a tint of worry.

Genma was hesitant but answered nonetheless. "Yes, they're here from Konoha. They just returned from a mission. Now let's go. Kazekage-sama is not the man of patience." He tugged her to move but she remained on her spot.

Something was wrong. Something was not right. She could sense it.

"Wait. Let's depart as soon as I met those four. Are they new to the village?" She inquired, now more than curious and less than worried.

Genma gave her a hard look and, did she see worry and concern in his eyes?

"Two of them came from this village, the other two, well, they're new." Kotetsu answered instead.

"I would like to meet them." Once these words slipped from her mouth, there was a thunderclap right over them followed by the drops of heavy rain.

Despite the rain, the five shinobi stood motionless, not daring to find a shed.

For Genma, Sai and Kotetsu, they remained just in case Sakura would snap.

For Izumo, who was oblivious to the tense atmosphere and was looking excited, he remained because he, too, wanted Sakura to meet them. He remained silent about it for he knew that it would be a great surprise for her.

For Sakura, she remained because it was senseless to find a shed. She would be soaked in water sooner or later when they travel.

Genma and Sai looked concerned while Kotetsu looked slightly confused. Izumo looked excited as he was grinning and Sakura looked hopeful to meet the other two shinobi and the new ones.

After a few more minutes, they could spot four figured not so far away. Sakura reached for her fox mask, deciding to show them her shinobi level.

"Fuck it off, bitch!" Said one with his voice irritated and slightly exhausted. "Why just don't walk by yourself, you lazy ass!" His voice was new to Sakura's ears.

'One of the newbie…'

"I'm too damn tired and my koishii was injured so he can't carry me. Stop complaining, asshole!" A woman hissed. Some newbie as well.

Their screams of argument were drowned under the rain and Sakura couldn't follow their conversation. When they were meters away, their figures solidified.

Three men and a woman, she thought. They walked until they reached the gates. They stopped in their tracks upon seeing Sai, Genma, Kotetsu, Izumo and a masked ninja, an ANBU.

"Now, get off, bitch!" The man with white bluish hair exclaimed as he shoved not too gently the woman with red hair away from him.

"Fuck you, Suigetsu!" The woman shouted back, agitated, as she smoothed her already messy hair.

"Yo, Sai, Izumo, Kotetsu, Genma, nice seeing you here," Suigetsu greeted them, completely ignoring the redhead kunoichi.

"Welcome back." Izumo said in a cheerless tone. He always hated Suigetsu for he was once an enemy of Konoha.

Kotetsu and Sai merely nodded at him as they glanced towards the pinkette who seemed frozen to her feet. Genma snorted irritably, his feelings mutual with Izumo when it comes to Suigetsu and Karin. He stepped closer to Sakura. Just in case things turned out bad.

The movement caught the white head's attention as he eyed the ANBU ninja with slight interest and curiosity. He couldn't tell yet if the ninja was a man or a woman. He couldn't recognize him, he decided the ninja was a he because of the flattened chest, either for he masked his chakra completely. "So, what do we have here?"

Sakura stood frozen in her spot. She was too shocked to move. She knew these men. They were Sasuke's teammates when he left the village. What the hell are they doing here in Konoha? They were enemies, for fuck's sake!

'Kill them. Now!'

That was until she noticed they wore the hitai-ate of Konoha. Genma, who was standing beside her, wasn't doing anything so maybe they were good guys now. Not that she would willingly welcome them.

So, if Suigetsu and Karin were the newbie, she assumed that the two cloaked figure behind them were the ninjas she new.

She was about to step forward to greet them, like most ninjas do, when one of the cloaked man removed his white cloak revealing his spiky yellow hair that was soaked by the rain immediately.

"At last, we're home!" The blonde beamed as he turned towards the guard gates. "Say, Kotetsu, is Ichiraku Ramen still open? I'm starving!"

There was another thunderclap.

Sakura widened her eyes behind her mask, her mouth gaping slightly. She recognized that grin, that voice, that blonde hair, those whiskers, those blue eyes, those –

Naruto. Is he alive? Since when? Why? How? Maybe he just looked like Naruto. Maybe he was a henge or some sort. Or maybe, he was –

"I doubt it, Naruto," Izumo answered when his partner remained silent, which was very strange. "Aren't you aware what time is it?" He laughed when the blonde sulked.

Naruto. It. was him! Izumo addressed him as Naruto and there's no way in Konoha that there would be another Naruto existed other than the Naruto she knew. What the fuck is happening? She glanced towards Genma for answers but she received a hand on her shoulder. She turned to Sai and the pale ninja was glaring towards Naruto's direction, or rather the man behind Naruto.

"Shut it, dobe," the cloaked man stated. "We need to report to the Hokage this instance."

Her emerald orbs widened even more when she recognized that voice, if that's even possible. Her jaw dropped and she was very thankful that the mask could hide her face. Tears began forming in her eyes, both because of mixed emotions: longing, anger, yearning, hatred, disbelief and confusion.

"Stop being a kill joy, teme! I know you want ramen as well. And guess what, I do not intend to give you some!" Naruto stuck his tongue out towards the guy who was now pulling his cloak off, revealing raven hair and onyx eyes.

Sasuke.

Sasuke and Naruto.

Both alive.

Fuck!

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Chapter 5 ends here, and yeah, Sasuke and Naruto made an appearance. Well, not that many. So I decided to put Karin and Suigetsu here in the story. I hope you like the idea. And yeah, Juugo is here as well.

The real plot will be revealed soon in Suna. Just you wait, folks.

Let me know what you think or ask me some questions, I'll answer them all!

Thank you again for reading!

Read and Review!


	6. The Blossom

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Here is Chapter 6 for my lovely readers! This is a little bit short, well, my shortest chapter so far. But I hope you are still interested in my story.

**WARNING: **Foul language and OCCness of the characters.

**DISCLAIMER: **I OWN nothing, except the plot and the grammar plus spelling errors.

"Talking"

'Inner Sakura'

_Flashback_

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**Chapter 6: The Blossom**

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Sasuke ignored Naruto and noticed the masked ninja standing still beside Genma. He asked who that was. This made Naruto, Karin and Suigetsu acknowledged the presence of the ANBU. Sasuke tried to recognize who he was but failed when the ninja hid his chakra signatures completely. Huh, he's perfect in chakra control, he concluded.

Izumo was about to answer when the ninja beats him to it. "I'm an ANBU. Genma and I are about to depart when your presence… appeared."

Sakura tried to speak as normal as she could manage. She even hid her chakra completely so they won't recognize her, that is if they still remember her. Behind her mask she was crying. She was crying and she thanked the rain for drowning her sounds.

Suigetsu, Naruto and Sasuke, the latter was quite unnoticed, jolted in surprise when they realized the masked ninja was a female. Karin looked bored, as usual, and stepped closer to Sasuke to gain warmth under the chilly rain.

Kotetsu, Sai and Genma felt sorry for the pinkette. Izumo tried to communicate with Kotetsu when Sakura seemed not happy to see her former teammates again. Kotetsu shook his head and gave Sakura a pointed look. Izumo's eyes widened in realization and he threw Sakura a worried look.

"Wow! An ANBU! Cool! Just like that dick Sai! But I bet you're cooler. Neh? Neh?" Naruto exclaimed in amazement as he jumped in front of Sakura.

Oh how she missed his voice! She wanted to hug and embrace him but decided against it. She controlled herself even though it was hard especially in front of the person you loved!

"State your name."

And Sasuke's silky voice! She never heard them since like six years ago. And she missed it as well. But she hid all of her emotions, like an ANBU supposed to do, and answered his question instead.

"I'm afraid I cannot," she paused to take a sharp breath, trying not to choke on her words. Genma tightened his grip on her shoulder.

"I wonder why." Sasuke glared at her direction, suddenly frustrated at her answer.

"And what the fuck do you care, anyway?" Genma hissed, throwing the Uchiha a glare. Sasuke could just glare back and muttered a 'whatever' under his breath. He wrapped an arm around Karin's waist to pull her closer, earning him warmth.

Sakura's knees weakened at the sight and leaned on Genma. Genma caught her and gave her an apologetic look. "Genma, let's go." Suddenly she was glad that they were now on a mission. At least, she wouldn't have to deal with her bastard teammates.

Mustering all her strength, she gave Sai one last hug. "I'll be back. Tell shisou I will kill her. And you and Genma and all of you." Sai nodded and she pulled away, glancing toward the guard ninjas. "Kotetsu, Izumo, behave." The two ninjas smiled at her, apologetic and somewhat sheepish.

After nodding towards Suigetsu and Karin, and giving Sasuke and Naruto a very, very hard look, she began her way towards Suna, Genma was following silently behind.

"Strange! That woman did not bid her goodbyes to us!" Naruto exclaimed when he was sure that the ANBU was out of earshot. "And she was giving us a dead look! Who was she anyway?"

"That's because you are a dickless, dickless." Sai commented, thankful that Sakura did not snap. He wondered if she was just hiding her emotions and deep inside, she was bursting and erupting.

"Shut up, Sai!" Naruto thumbed Sasuke behind him. "It's a wonder she didn't fall head over heels to this ugly teme."

"You have no idea," Kotetsu muttered silently.

"Can we go now?" Karin said in annoyed tone, pushing her curvy body against Sasuke closer. "It's fucking chilly in here. Let's share the warmth now, Sasuke-kun."

Naruto and Suigetsu shivered in disgust. Izumo rolled his eyes, Kotetsu wanted to laugh at the face of Sasuke. Sai remained emotionless.

"Hn." Sasuke shrugged Karin off his body, much to the redhead's dismay, and leaped towards the Hokage tower, not even bidding the guard gates goodbye. His teammates followed behind him. Suigetsu snickered at Karin's face then they vanished from the night.

Sai let out the breath he was holding and shivered when he realized the freezing water on his body.

"You cannot hide the fact from her forever. It's better if she'll know the truth as soon as possible." Kotetsu said before leaving Sai under the rain. Izumo patted him on the shoulder and disappeared as well.

Sai sighed again and disappeared in a puff of smoke. He had to report this to the Hokage right away.

XX

Tsunade would have murdered these bastard ninjas if they weren't the Team Naruto for interrupting her midnight gambling and drinking. She was quite surprised at their abrupt presence because she knew that their team was due till the next day at noon. Their early arrival is quite a surprise even though they almost finished their missions one day earlier the due time.

"Teme and his girlfriend were very eager to fuck each other," Naruto reasoned, enjoying the way Sasuke glared at him.

Cursing his best friend to death, Sasuke reached the Hokage's table and placed the scroll on top of it, ignoring the bottles of sake and the scratch cards.

"Great job," Tsunade picked the scroll very carefully, despite her drunken state. "I'll summon you again until further notice."

Sasuke bowed once then stepped back, waiting for the Hokage to dismiss them.

A moment later, Sai appeared in the middle of the room. Tsunade snorted irritably and rolled her eyes. "Why are you all soaked in water? Please tell me you didn't do anything stupid this time 'cause I'll rip your throat when you ask me to attend your sickness."

"I hope you are aware enough to notice that it was raining outside, Tsunade-baachan." Tsunade glared towards the blonde. Suigetsu snickered somewhere in the room.

"What's your business here, Sai?" Tsunade asked the pale ninja with an exhaust tone. Sasuke wondered why Tsunade didn't dismiss them yet. He wanted to throw the covers of his warm bed over him and sleep like forever.

"She left a few moments ago." Sai stated softly, his eyes were hard.

Tsunade was about to ask who but she got what she meant by the word 'she'. Her eyes widened as realization hit her and Sasuke didn't miss that. "She… met them?"

Sai nodded and the blond woman clicked her tongue and grunted her teeth. "How was she doing?"

There was a short pause as if Sai was contemplating his answer. "I think she could cope but… " He trailed off and he knew that Tsunade already knew what he meant.

"At least, she's with the idiot. And on a mission. That will give her enough to adjust, do you think?"

Sai nodded and Tsunade rubbed her temples. She knew that Sakura was now confused about the sudden revelations. But her apprentice needed to know everything.

She could just hope that Sakura would be well enough to handle the mission by herself.

That's it. Sasuke was being suspicious. It was obvious that Tsunade and Sai were talking about the masked ninja from before. What's the big deal anyway? Why are they so worried about her? The ninja from before was an ANBU. They do not need to worry about anything that might happen to her. Do they even trust her skills and abilities as a ninja?

Why would he even care anyway? It was not a big deal after all. Sasuke was exhausted and he needed to go home and sleep. Just a 'dismiss' from Tsunade and he would sleep all week.

"Say, Tsunade-baachan, we met an ANBU from before and it was the first time I saw her. Is she new?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke gazed towards the blond and he saw his serious expression. Naruto must be thinking along the same lines as him.

Tsunade and Sai tensed. So they noticed…

The Hokage silently told Sai that she needed to announce this. Sai nodded and turned towards Sasuke.

"Karin, Suigetsu, you are dismissed. Naruto, Uchiha, stay."

"But I can't leave without my Sasuke!" Karin received a murderous look from Tsunade so she shut her mouth up and left the room, growling. Suigetsu laughed and left as well.

Now something was wrong. Sasuke thought to himself. He tensed slightly when Tsunade's gaze dropped at him but he showed his cool facade.

"Do you not have any idea who was that ANBU from before?" Tsunade asked.

"Well, she seems familiar, I mean the voice but all in all, I don't know her." Naruto answered honestly.

"She masked her chakra completely so it is hard for me to recognize who she is," Sasuke answered, narrowing his brows slightly.

"Of course," Tsunade replied with a snort. Sakura didn't want to be recognized by her old teammates, huh? "Do you have any idea how old is she?"

Naruto had to think for a moment. "Her voice sounded like twenty-something but she was an ANBU already so maybe around Kaka-sensei's age?"

Tsunade eyed the Uchiha. "Twenty-five or more," Sasuke answered, it was based on the shinobi's rank. She was an ANBU already so she must be older than them, but her posture and voice, she was younger than Kakashi.

"Actually, she's twenty-three. She's at your age, surprising?" Tsunade smirked at their disbelief expression.

Sasuke could just stare. How on earth she was twenty-three only? She's younger than him and yet she's an ANBU already? How strong is she? She was one of their batch, the Konoha Twelve and besides Neji and Shikamaru; it was surprising to find someone at young age in the ANBU. Is she more powerful than Neji and smarter than Shikamaru?

Then a thought hit him. "An ANBU must be a Konoha citizen and graduated in the Konoha academy. And if she is twenty-three, which appears to be in our batch, that means she was one of the Konoha Twelve."

Tsunade smirked. The Uchiha's observations were always accurate and unbelievably fast, second to Shikamaru. Impressive indeed. He hit the target instantly. "That is correct, Uchiha."

Naruto was listening silently. "So, if the woman was one of the Konoha Twelve, then the choices would be Ino, Tenten, Hinata and – " His eyes widened.

"Sakura," Sasuke finished, surprised written on his face.

Tsunade smirked at them and leaned on her seat. "Yes. She is back."

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	7. Convene with Him

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**Chapter 6 and 7 back to back for you, guys! Midterms ****will be on Wednesday so updates will be delayed for God knows how long. I extremely apologize about that matter. Please do enjoy.**

**WARNING: **Foul language and OCCness of the characters.

**DISCLAIMER: **I OWN nothing, except the plot and the grammar plus spelling errors.

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"Talking"

'Inner Sakura'

_Flashback_

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**Chapter 7: Convene with Him**

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Sakura jumped from branch to branch with an incredible speed despite the harsh drops of chilly rain on her face.

"Oi, Sakura! Slow down!" She ignored Genma behind her as she increased her pace more. Damn she wanted to kill someone!

Her right foot slipped and she fell on the muddy ground with a splash. Gritting her teeth, she resumed her pace and left Genma behind her.

She wanted to be alone.

"Slow down, I said!" Genma shouted behind her, his pace was careful and calculated, afraid to slip and fall. "You're dangerously fast, Sakura!"

Yep, she was still ignoring him.

The branch she landed on broke and she fell but Genma caught her before she touched the ground. She pushed him away and jumped on the trees, leaping faster this time.

Genma cursed and followed her.

Why? Why are they alive? How? Since when? Why did no one tell her? Why didn't she know? Why?

She increased her pace, charging more chakra to her legs. She ran so fast, wanting to erase all thoughts in her mind. She didn't know what to do right now but cry. All of the thoughts, the revelations, they were killing her inside.

Naruto and Sasuke died. They were now dead. And now they were alive. They were breathing. Was it all a dream? Was it just a dream when she saw them a while ago? No, it wasn't a dream. It's a nightmare, a one horrible nightmare.

Tears blurred her vision as she slammed herself against the hard trunk of a tree. Groaning at the impact, she fell on the branch below with a painful thud.

This time she didn't bother to stand again and run. Genma appeared beside her, lifting her.

"God, Sakura, what are you doing?!" Genma shouted against the sounds of heavy rain. "You could've got yourself killed!"

"Don't care," she muttered weakly, ignoring the pain on her back. She pushed him away. "Leave me here and let me die…"

"Fuck off!" Genma was now angry as he shook her. "What the hell is happening to you?"

She didn't answer. She was crying. She was sobbing. She was wailing.

Why was she acting this anyway? She was supposed to hug them, embrace them and welcome them open arms, not run away from them and hurt herself.

She was supposed to be happy because her precious men were alive. Wasn't that she was wishing for these past few years? It was senseless to feel pain and hurt knowing that the men she loved were alive! It was senseless to feel pain and hurt knowing that Naruto and Sasuke had survived, knowing that she could be with them again and have a wonderful, peaceful life.

But why was she feeling the pain? Pain is a negative feeling and it is senseless to feel such negative feelings when you know that someone you loved was alive. But why? The pain was all about what? She didn't know the answer, hell she had no fucking idea about it.

"It hurts," she mumbled softly, grabbing Genma's shoulder so she could bury her head in the crook of his neck. She needed someone to cling to or else, she might die. "It hurts, Genma. It hurts seeing them again… But why?"

'You're pathetic.'

Right. She was pathetic, hopeless, helpless… The fact that Naruto and Sasuke were alive made her feel that she was weak again. Their presence reminded her of her old self. They reminded her how weak she was and how annoying she was.

She gritted her teeth.

She didn't want to feel weak again. She was strong. She became strong. Their presence would just remind her of her bitter past. And she didn't want to remember that past.

"Tell me, Genma, I'm strong right?" She asked weakly against his neck.

"Yes, Sakura, you're strong."

"I'm not pathetic, right?"

"Yes, Sakura. Your will is admirable."

"Am I annoying?"

"No, you just pissed all of us to death."

Sakura couldn't help but smile at the honesty of his words.

That's right. Sakura didn't need Sasuke and Naruto to prove herself she was strong. Genma said she was strong. He told her she's not pathetic.

She moved on, for fuck's sake! Why on earth did Naruto and Sasuke show up again? To mess her life?

She sobbed again, crying softly as Genma held her under the rain. She was very grateful he's here with her.

"Why, Genma?" She said pleadingly. "Why is the heaven's so cruel to my life? What did I do in my past life to deserve this pain? Why was my life so fucking troublesome like this? Couldn't I live with a happy and peaceful life without them? Couldn't I live a happy and peaceful life with you? All of you?"

You will be from the sadness of the past, Sakura. I assure you that.

Be ready always. If something precious does return back, I want you to accept it.

Don't let your negative emotions bottle up. Erase them all, leave the positives. Do you understand?

Always give importance to the present, not the past.

What will you do if one day, Naruto-kun and Sasuke-kun came back?

You know how much you mean to Naruto and Sasuke. You have no right to doubt yourself.

Genma-kun is right, Sakura. Naruto-kun was worried about you and your family, that is why he left to get Sasuke-kun. That way he could complete your family again.

So, Kakashi, Kiba, Neji, Genma and Sai knew this all? And they didn't even say a fucking word about this! She was sure that her shishou knew as well as she gave her another mission.

But why did they hide the truth away from her? If they just informed her about it, then she wouldn't be so fucked up like this. Nothing would happen. Her life wouldn't be a fucking bullshit.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Sakura asked, shivering at the cold. Genma didn't answer; instead he ran his hand across her back. "You know all along that they are alive and yet, you haven't spoken a word. Why Genma? Do you hate me?"

She felt his jaw tightened but did not answer.

So those five plus Tsunade were also trying to mess with her life as well? Why? Did she make something that pissed them off? Was it because she passed being an ANBU? They were doing this out of envy? Or a hidden hatred against her?

"Do you hate me?"

"No, Sakura. I don't," Genma forced to answer.

Genma didn't hate her. She realized it was nonsense to doubt him, and all her friends. Didn't she realize that they were there at her side when she lost everything?

Her life wasn't just rotating around a blond and a raven haired boy! She has her family. She has her family even without Naruto and Sasuke.

She was just thinking too much negative thoughts. It wasn't healthy. It would just drive her insane to no end.

She straightened herself and stood up; Genma supported and assisted her as if she might fall. She removed her mask and wiped her face dry which failed because of the heavy rain. She frowned.

"I'm sorry," she muttered. "I shouldn't have acted like this during a mission."

Genma smiled. "Nah, it's okay. Least you didn't snap like an erupting volcano like I've expected you to be."

She glared at him and fought not to smile. "Geez, thanks. Next time send me a letter when one of my dead friends rises on the ground."

Genma smiled sheepishly.

"You know all along that they're alive. Why hide it from me?"

The senbon Jounin was silent, torn between not to answer or just to lie.

Sakura rolled her eyes and playfully punched him on the arm, which still was painful. "Knock it off. It's not that important." She turned on her heels. "Come on, let's continue."

"Are you sure you're okay now?"

"Yes! What do you think I am –"

Genma caught her instantly when she fell. She was unconscious now. Rolling his eyes, he concluded that during her tantrum, she released a massive amount of angry chakra, leaving her nothing behind.

Worried if they might attract other ninjas, he masked his own and journeyed towards the Sand Village with Sakura on his back.

XX

"Another mission again? Tsunade-baachaan, give us some break!" Naruto's voice rang around the Hokage's room.

Team Naruto was summoned again by the Hokage the next day. After Naruto knew that Sakura was back but was sent to a mission, he went on rampage. He demanded Tsunade to make him follow their old teammate.

Tsunade, however, rewarded him with a punch, not chakra-infused and shouted at him to come back tomorrow with the full team. Sasuke remained silent, as usual.

And now today was tomorrow. Naruto and his teammates were standing in front of Tsunade.

Suigetsu looked bored; Karin was contented to stand beside Sasuke while the Uchiha was silent, as usual. Naruto, however, was so loud, which was as usual also.

"I want to follow Sakura-chan!" Naruto exclaimed. "I don't want a mission, baachan!"

"Naruto," Tsunade warned, "there's no team available for this mission besides your team. So you'll do it whether you like it or not."

"But, baachan, can't it wait for another three days?"

"No, it is urgent."

Naruto growled in frustration, his nerves were raging to find their pinkette friend, kidnap her from wherever she was and her mission be damned! "Why didn't you tell us that she's coming back? We could've finished the mission much, much earlier!"

Tsunade glared at the blond. She was very annoyed with this loud blond the reason she choose him to be the next Hokage after her she couldn't fathom.

"She didn't want to see you, do you even know that?"

Naruto froze and blinked once. "What?"

"She doesn't want to see you, nor this Uchiha and his other two friends because they were once the enemy of the village. She freaked out once she saw you, don't you notice that?"

"Nonsense!" Naruto beamed in disbelief. "Sakura-chan won't react like that."

"The Uchiha left her on the bench, you left her on the same bench, she heard that you're dead and she believed that you left her. What do you expect?"

Naruto was silent after that, as well as his teammates.

Tsunade clicked her tongue. It's hard to deal with teenagers! They were the same idiot she knew since they were genin.

She grabbed a piece of scroll from the inner drawer of her table. Opening it, she eyed the ninjas in front of her. "So, the mission…"

"Baachan!" Naruto exclaimed.

Tsunade silenced him with her infamous death glare then nodded towards the Uchiha. "Your team is to escort a business man and his twin daughters to the Sand."

Naruto scoffed, defeated. Sasuke merely smirked at him as Tsunade handed him the scroll.

"It's a B-rank mission," Tsunade continued. "So expect a lot of rouge ninjas on the way. Be careful."

"Hn."

Afterwards, Tsunade dismissed them all. Once they were gone, Tsunade sighed long and deep.

She very much hoped that everything will go well.

She very much hoped that what she did will end up well.

Most especially to Sakura.

XX

Team Naruto, with an exception of Suigetsu, was on the gates, waiting for their client. Not long after, a man in his late thirties and two young ladies appeared, Suigetsu leading them.

"Sorry for the long wait," the man apologized politely. He had short black hair that was braided thinly and was hanging on his left shoulder and he had dark brown eyes. "I am Shoutaro Senzono." He motioned to the young ladies. "And these are my daughters, Shimizu and Shizuku." The two young ladies bowed as politely as their father.

Sasuke merely nod and declared that they should be going. After that, their journey towards Suna has begun.

XX

After hours of travel and as soon as they almost reached the borders of Suna and Konoha, Karin merely jumped as she felt three strong chakra signatures nearby. Sasuke held a hand to stop their walk and motioned his teammates to surround Shoutaro and his daughters.

"What is it, Karin?" Sasuke asked, his eyes were spinning to Sharingan as he darted here and there over the place.

"Three ninjas, Jounin level, and based on the flow of their chakra, they-re ready to fight." Karin said in a low voice.

"Step back," Sasuke commanded. "Suigetsu and you are to protect the business man. Naruto and I will be fighting the bastards."

Both Suigetsu and Karin nodded as they led Shoutaro and his daughters to the end of the clearing. Suigetsu pulled his gigantic sword and smirked, too eager to have some real fight.

Not losing after, with a puff of smoke, three rogue nins from Iwa appeared. They had mask on their faces.

Sasuke and Naruto readied themselves to battle.

"Look, we totally hit the jackpot," one rouge nin said as he glanced towards Karin. "They have a medic nin in their little team."

Karin glared at them and pulled out a kunai. She may not be a fighter but she can defend herself well, if needed. Suigetsu advanced towards the three and smirked. "I'll take this bitches down," he declared.

"Hey! What do you want?" Naruto answered angrily. Since they left Konoha, his mood had never been better. His patience was wearing thin. They need to finish this mission as fast as possible so he can pursue Sakura.

"It should be quite obvious right now, blondie," the same rogue nin said and Naruto could feel the smirk behind his mask. "We're here to get your medic over there. Nice chick, I say."

Despite the situation, Suigetsu managed to snicker at this remark. "Oh, man. Looks can deceive, ya know!"

Karin glared at the white head. "Shut your shithole, Suigetsu." Suigetsu laughed in return.

"We do not have much time to engage in a senseless conversation," the other nin said, with his voice that told Sasuke he was the ring leader if this group of nukenins. "The dawn is wearing thin. They need the mint light to complete the months from January to October again."

Naruto and Suigetsu blinked, not understanding what the rogue nin said. However, Sasuke managed to memorize the lines. He had the feeling that it was some sort of code message. He mental noted himself to study these lines later.

"Yeah, yeah, conjunctivitis is so impatient." The first ninja said.

"He'll torture you if he hears you." The second ninja stated. The first ninja shuddered and shook his head.

Naruto growled and decided to start the match. He made several clones of himself and commanded them to charge. Sasuke made several hand signs of Katon and the battle was on.

XX

Sakura woke up and her nostrils met the overpowering smell of medicine.

'Argh, hospital. Great.'

Pushing herself to sit, she realized that her ANBU uniform was neatly folded on the table beside her occupied bed. There were several patched on her arms and on her face.

What the hell had happened to her?

'It's like Kiba had devoured you.'

Rolling her eyes, she stood up, ignoring the small pain on her back. As she reached for her ninja bag, the door of the room suddenly opened.

She watched with slight surprise to see Kankuro entered the room.

Seeing her, Kankuro merely smirked then eye her up and down before whistling.

It took three seconds and a half before Sakura managed to cover her almost naked upper body. She sent Kankuro a glare before turning to her back and rummaged inside her bag. Pulling her usual red top with white circle designs, she hastily slipped the dress on. Pulling out her black shorts, she slipped them on over her spandex shorts before putting her short pink apron skirt.

She made a grab of her forehead protector and tied it around her neck before running her hand over her messy pink locks.

Kankuro could just watch with a smirk at how he could dress up in front of a man so casually.

Sakura glared at him, sensing his thoughts before slipping her black boots on. Now she looked like the Sakura before Naruto had left her, minus the gloves and the elbow protectors. She was more comfortable wearing this outfit. Besides, she was in Suna now. To meet a Konoha enemy would be remote.

"Where's Genma?" She questioned while placing her kunai pouch on her right thigh, just in case.

"With Temari," Kankuro answered. "He said he has to do a solo mission given by the Hokage."

Sakura merely nod at him. "So, where do I begin?"

Kankuro smirked at her that made Sakura gulped in sudden anxiety. The tattooed man turned and motioned Sakura to follow him. "We'll heading to Gaara's office."

Upon the mention of the redhead's name, Sakura nearly squeaked. Thanked Kami she managed to control her voice.

"You know," Kankuro began after several minutes of silence. "Gaara wasn't exactly too happy when you left him two years ago…"

Sakura curled her lips into thin line. "I didn't leave him."

"Oh, yeah?" Kankuro smirked and shivered slightly at the memory of an enraged Gaara. His brother was so fun to see in his frustrated, agitated, irritated, and enraged mode, if it wasn't that scary to death and disturbing as hell.

They reached the Kazekage's office and Sakura gulped audibly.

"You really are great in masking your chakra. I bet Gaara isn't aware yet about your presence." Kankuro knocked three times on the door. "Gaara, I brought the medic from Konoha."

There was silence behind the double doors and Sakura thought that Gaara would jump anytime now and ravish her right there and then.

'That would be intense.'

Sakura cursed when heat rose to her cheeks at the thought of Gaara ravishing her.

"I am busy," said a low voice which was very familiar to Sakura. She would have opened the doors and hugged the redhead if it wasn't for the fact that he might kill her first before she did such things. "Did I not tell you that I don't accept interruptions?" He nearly growled.

Sakura gulped. "I think it's better to listen, right, Kankuro?" She laughed nervously and attempted to walk away but Kankuro grab her wrist. She nearly squeaked.

"Where do you think you're going, Sakura?"

"Gaara isn't in the mood!" She whisper-shouted. "I don't want to deal with an enraged Gaara, damn it!"

Kankuro answered her with a mischievous smirk before turning towards the door again. "Temari brought you her belated birthday gift. She will be very upset if you refuse."

Sakura froze. Oh, my! I forgot Gaara's birthday! It was last week! I am so—

'Yes, dear, you are so dead. Don't worry; I'll make sure you are still pretty during your funeral.'

"Kankuro," Gaara warned in a very low voice, too low for anyone's liking. "She already gave me the gift the day before my birthday. So what the hell are you talking about?"

Kankuro sweat dropped. "Okay, fine. It was actually a belated birthday gift from Tsunade-sama."

With this said, Sakura snapped towards the tattooed man incredulously. "What? I thought this is a mission!"

The smile Kankuro had given to her answered her unsaid question.

"I am so going to kill Tsunade-shisou after this damn mission!"

There was a grunting noise behind the doors before a painful "fine" was heard.

Kankuro smirked. "I'll let her in, Gaara." Sakura was pushed against the door. "You're on your own, sweetie."

Before Sakura could grab and strangle Kankuro with her forehead protector, the puppeteer was already gone. And before Sakura could make a run to save her sorry life, the door suddenly opened.

Her emerald eyes fixed instantly on two familiar jade orbs staring at her own.

Realizing that she couldn't do anything about this freakish situation, Sakura raised a hand in greeting. "Hi, Gaara—"

But before she could finish her sentence, she was suddenly pulled inside the room and the doors slammed shut behind her.

And before she could ask in pure wonderment how could be the rough sand around her wrists were as gentle as the wind, she realized that she was actually standing in front of the Almighty Gaara.

She gulped for the umpteenth time that day.

"Sakura…" He breathed and Sakura nearly fainted in sheer nervousness.

The sand around her wrists were replaced by Gaara's sand and all of the sudden, he pulled her and trapped her in his embrace.

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**END OF CHAPTER! **So, how you like it? I am so flattered about your reviews that I came to the point of thinking not to go to school and just write and finish this crappy story. However, if I do such things, my life will get crappy and in serious deep shit. I love studying, I truly do. :)

Reviews are appreciated.

Tell me your ideas!

THANK YOU!


	8. With My Lover

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Helloooo~ Its been a while, has it not? I apologize for late updates. I have many reasons but they are valid! :DD Anyway, please still continue reading this even though I update very slowly. :/ Oh, and thank you for those who reviewed. I didn't check my account for weeks and when I read your reviews… you can't imagine how happy I am. :D Seriously! Now on with the story!

**WARNING: **Rated M for foul language, lots of grammatical and spelling errors, sexy talk, OOcness of the characters.

**DISCLAIMER: **I OWN nothing, except the plot and some OC there… yeah.

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**Chapter 8: With My Lover**

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Sasuke was panting slightly as he deactivated his Sharingan. He did not consume much chakra but he was still exhausted because of the physical fight he engaged with the nukenins.

Naruto stood up from his crouching position and headed towards the west with a grunt when Sasuke caught him by the collar. The sun kissed blonde turned sharply and glared at him. "What the fuck, teme? We must follow them!" He then pointed a finger towards the west.

And by 'them' Naruto meant the three nukenins from Iwa. They managed to escape somehow when they realized that capturing Karin was impossible.

"No, dobe," Sasuke answered sternly. "We're on a mission right now."

"The fuck cares?!" Naruto exclaimed, clearly showing his irritation. "They're nukenins for fuck's sake!"

Sasuke tightened his grip on Naruto's collar and he practically threw the blond towards the standing Suigetsu. Both of them crushed on the ground with a thud. "We will depart in three minutes. Karin, check for any injuries."

"But what about you? You seemed a little battered, Sasuke-kun." Karin responded as she went to attend Naruto's injuries. The blonde did not say anything.

"I can die in several ways more dangerous than this," Sasuke answered as he faced the direction where the nukenins had scampered off. They were heading to Iwa, he thought. Strange. Rouge ninjas were not usually returning back to their home village.

His mind then drifted back to their fight earlier. The three rogue nins could actually lend a good fight with their extreme skills in taijutsu and ninjutsu. But he knew that he could take them down in less than five minutes, if it wasn't for Naruto who kept on attacking without actually thinking.

During their mini fight which lasted about an hour and a few more minutes, Naruto kept on throwing worthless attacks towards the rogue nins. Sasuke told him that he was just wasting chakra and he should have been better to stay out of the fight.

Naruto cursed him loudly before attacking the enemies again, this time using deadlier jutsu. But without actually thinking for a good strategy, Naruto's attack became worthless and senseless especially one of the rogue nins has seemingly an above average intelligence.

Sasuke was forced to use his Mangekyou Sharingan to lead the fight to their side. He then remembered something from one of the rogue ninjas saying like "That chicken-ass guy has the same eyes with conjunctivitis."

He paid that no attention as he tried to catch those ninjas in an illusion. Somehow, Naruto decided to intervene and declare to finish the fight himself that only gave the nukenins enough time to escape.

Sasuke then punched Naruto on the face painfully saying, "Stop being an idiot and focus. We will find Sakura after this."

The blond shut for a moment then before rubbing his sore face.

"We are delayed by an hour and a half," Sasuke announced as his group prepared to depart. Fortunately, no one was injured, saved for Naruto who had a bruise on his face. Sasuke forbid Karin to heal that bruise.

"It's okay," the business man said as he checked his daughters for any injuries. He smiled when he found none. "At least nobody got hurt seriously."

Sasuke nodded and their journey resumed. However, during their journey, Sasuke couldn't help but to feel suspicious about the rogue nins from before. They kept on talking using symbolic words like 'dawn', 'mint light' and other else. He had the feeling that they were talking about a very confidential issue. He made a mental note to include this in their report when they got home in Konoha.

But another thing that leave him thinking deeply was what the rogue nin had said to them before declaring to capture their medic nin, Karin.

"If that pink head chick didn't kill our medic, the dawn would have been coming back to the sky by now and resuming their clandestine invasion of claiming the authority of the sun all over the shinobi world."

And by 'pink head chick' meant Sakura to his opinion. If he was right, then Sakura had killed their medic that's why they were on the hunt to look for a new one. However, the following statement after that made Sasuke to think hard.

What did they mean about the words dawn, coming back to the sky, clandestine invasion, and authority of the sun? He had no idea, perhaps Tsunade would have if he would tell this to her. But still, it brought unease to Sasuke.

He had the feeling that some notorious organization was involved.

"…ke-kun? Sasuke-kun?"

Sasuke blinked then stopped in his tracks. He turned and found Karin looking at him worriedly.

"Are you alright, Sasuke-kun?"

That's when Sasuke realized that they were now standing in front of the gates of Suna. He blinked again. He was so absorbed in his thoughts that he didn't realize they reached their destination.

"Hn," was his short answer before he approached the guards of the gates.

"Oi," the guard greeted them with a raise of a hand. "What is the Konoha ninjas business here?"

"We're here to escort this business man and his daughters," Sasuke gestured towards their client then showed the guard the scroll. The guards immediately recognized the noble man and they opened the gates wordlessly.

Sasuke nodded his thanks before entering inside the village. The guards waved at them.

"Thank you," Shoutaro began then grabbed something from his bag. It was a scroll and he handed it to Sasuke. "Your mission is officially done here. This scroll is the proof."

Sasuke nodded and stuffed the scroll inside his ninja bag.

"We will be going now. Thank you once again," with a polite bow, Shoutaro and his daughters left them, heading towards the Kazekage Tower.

Sasuke faced his teammates. Karin was looking at him with a blush on her face. Suigetsu was scowling; he really didn't like the sand and Naruto was giving him a pointed look, his arms crossed over his chest.

"Come on. Let's head home," Naruto declared and turned on his heels as he began his way towards the gates.

"Give us some break, Naruto," Suigetsu said as he shook his head slightly.

Naruto glared towards the white head but when he realized that Suigetsu and Karin looked exhausted, he heaved a deep sigh and rubbed his temples. "Fine. We'll leave tomorrow."

Suigetsu grinned weakly before heading towards an unknown destination. Karin pulled Sasuke with him as she began muttering about finding a luxury hotel. Sasuke grunted and let himself be pulled. He was damn tired as well.

Naruto snickered despite his mood and he decided with a grin that he should pay the Kazekage a visit.

XX

Sakura didn't register when Gaara had actually moved.

And before she knew it, she was suddenly pulled and caught in his embrace. She heard him sigh softly as he pulled her against his hard body. He was then suddenly kissing her before she even realized what was happening. But then, the movement of his lips against her eased her worries and she melted on his mercy.

The kiss he gave to her was intense, excited and fierce, with a slight nipping, sucking and biting. He was ravishing her, quite literally. The kiss was too far to be gentle but she found herself liking what he was doing. Besides, this was Gaara of the Sand. He was known to be aggressive, right?

She was just standing there, not knowing what to do and still trying to comprehend the things that just happened while Gaara assaulted her lips like there was no tomorrow.

Sakura gave Gaara's arm a slight squeeze when the need of air became scarce. Gaara pulled away with a low growl of protest. Once Sakura heaved a deep breath, Gaara leaned forward again to claim her lips wordlessly.

Sakura had never realized that everything would go as smoothly as this. Even though the kiss was quite harsh, well, what can you really expect from Gaara, right?

He cupped her right cheek with his left hand as he went to suck her bottom lip. She hummed at the sudden gentleness. And she leaned even closer to him.

At least he was not angry at her as she expected him to be… or so she thought.

"Sakura," Gaara muttered her name against her lips as he caressed the length of her spine using his right hand. He gave her no time to reply as he took her lips again. Sakura let a small moan when she felt the tip of his tongue tapped her lower lip, asking for permission.

Sakura was about to open her mouth to let him when there was a set of heavy knocks heard from the door. Gaara paid that no attention as he tilted her head to the side to give himself much easier access to explore her cavern.

Gaara growled dangerously low when they heard another knocks on the door. The vibration sent small pleasure to her body and Sakura could just chuckle when Gaara began glaring towards the door.

The knocks ceased for a moment and Gaara went to kissing her again when Sakura planted a finger onto his lips, stopping him right away. Gaara gave her a hard look, telling her that it wasn't a good time for interruptions. Sakura smiled softly as she shook her head and gestured towards the door.

Gaara crossed his arms over his chest and stared at her. Sakura merely laughed at the behavior then gave him a very pointed look.

Gaara curled his lips into thin line as Sakura faced the door.

"You will pay for this, Sakura," Gaara warned when Sakura began her way towards the door. "You know how I hate interruptions."

"I am fully aware, don't worry," Sakura smiled and held the doorknobs. "But you have to do your responsibility as the Kazekage, Gaara."

Gaara grunted in pure disagreement and Sakura opened the door, revealing a certain blonde female. Sakura smiled.

The female blonde blinked and blinked some more, then leaned closer to her. "Sakura?"

The pink haired medic nodded and before she knew it, she was pulled in a bone crushing embrace. "I'm glad to see you as well, Temari."

Temari pulled away a moment later and placed both her hands on Sakura's shoulders. "You're back."

"Yes, I am," Sakura answered with a sincere smile.

Temari frowned when she recalled something but the smile on her teal eyes never disappeared. "I didn't expect you to be here."

Sakura's brows shot as if surprised. "Genma didn't inform you?"

Temari clicked her tongue and put a hand on her hips. "That senbon sucking bastard did not mention anything about you…"

Sakura laughed softly. "He must've forgotten…"

Temari grunted.

That's when Temari noticed Gaara standing in the background, arms crossed over his chest and sand was violently spinning around him. If she would just tilt her head for a better angle to look at him, she would have noticed the glares the redhead was sending to her. She smirked. "Oh, I'm sorry. I guess I am interrupting something, don't I?"

Sakura blushed that made Temari's smirk to widen.

"But I'm afraid that the Kazekage is needed in the meeting room right now," Temari finished then shot Sakura an apologetic smile.

Gaara grunted and sent his sister a deadly glare. "Fucking meeting…" He muttered silently.

"I think it is very important. You should go, Gaara." Sakura said with an understanding smile.

Gaara frowned but he had no choice but to attend that meeting. What a bad timing, he thought grudgingly.

"Come on," Temari said. "The Feudal Lord hates waiting." She spat the word Feudal like it was a curse or something.

Sakura chuckled at the bitterness then pushed Gaara towards the door. Gaara glared at her but said nothing. "We should meet after that meeting."

"Of course," Gaara answered as he faced her. "I have to punish you for leaving me, Sakura." He smirked as she shivered violently at the implication of his words.

"But—"

"Do you think I would forget about that easily?" He smirked again and turned towards the waiting Temari. "Ready yourself. I will see you later," he declared and casted the pinkette a sidelong glance.

With that, Gaara left his office room and headed towards the meeting room. Temari smirked at the blushing Sakura. "I say, ready yourself for an intense punishment later, Sakura."

"Oh, joy."

Temari left Sakura in the room, laughing softly to herself. She was glad that Sakura came back. Although she got mad at her when she left her. But seeing Gaara now, her brother, made Temari happy. As long as Gaara was happy, she was happy as well.

Sakura should ready herself, though. Gaara missed her so damn much. Temari didn't know what Gaara could do to his beloved after not seeing each other for a long time.

Temari could just hope that Sakura would be okay after that.

She chuckled at the thought.

XX

Sakura decided to stroll around the village as she waited for Gaara's meeting to end. Her feet unconsciously dragged her towards the main hospital of Suna. Without any second thought, she entered the building and decided to pay the hospital a visit.

Upon stepping inside the building, a dark man with black hair and turquoise eyes came into her view and practically dropped on his knees as if begging. He was no older than her.

"Sakura-san!" He cried. He was wearing the male nurse uniform. Sakura recognized him easily.

"Tetsuo?" He was an apprentice of her before Sakura took the two-year long mission.

"I'm glad you're here!" The male said in relief.

Sakura pulled the male nurse to his feet and noticed the worry in his expression. "Tetsuo, what's wrong?"

"There is a dying patient in the ER. He needs surgery but it's very complicated. Our best doctors couldn't do anything!"

Upon hearing the report, Sakura's doctor side immediately kicked in. "Give me a uniform and lead the way."

"Right away, ma'am!"

XX

Sakura wiped her sweating forehead as she dropped on the couch outside the ER. She had finished a surgery that lasted about approximately three hours. She managed to heal the patient in time.

"Drink this, Sakura-san," Tetsuo handed her a glass of water. Sakura took it happily and drunk the content in three big gulps. "You did very well!"

"You doctors and nurses need serious training about this, Tetsuo. I made the correct procedures in this notebook. I guess it will help." Sakura threw the notebook to her subordinate who barely caught it.

"This is a big help, Sakura-san!" Tetsuo beamed. "Thank you very much!"

Somehow, Sakura deemed Tetsuo's personality the same like that of Lee's. Tetsuo was just more handsome…

Not that Lee wasn't a good looking man.

"Is your shift done?" Sakura asked all of the sudden as she removed the white doctor coat carefully.

"Yes. Mirakusa will replace me for the rest of the day, Sakura-san."

"Great," Sakura stood up and glanced towards the clock. She has still time. "Let's have a coffee break first, Tetsuo." Tetsuo froze and Sakura turned to face him worriedly. "What's wrong?"

Tetsuo literally cried. "Is… Is Sakura-san asking me for a date?"

"WHAT!?"

"If so, then I will happily accept!" Tetsuo gave Sakura no time to answer as he excused himself to dress up.

Sakura could just sweat drop and smiled weakly to herself. She then made her way outside the hospital to wait for Tetsuo, oblivious at the eye made of sand watching her every movement.

XX

Somewhere in the meeting room, Gaara gritted his teeth upon witnessing her pink haired woman asked her mongrel of a subordinate for a coffee break.

He knew it wasn't a date and he knew that Sakura has no romantic point of view towards the mongrel but Gaara couldn't help but to feel a little jealous and resentful.

He should be the one Sakura asking for a date, not that bastard! He should be the one Sakura's companion right now, not that mongrel or any man for the matter!

"Gaara, are you okay?" Temari asked beside him, voice soft and low. "You looked a little flushed and you are glaring at the table. Something happened?"

Gaara inhaled to control himself then pinched the bridge of his nose. He was about to reassure his sister that he was fine when he saw something through the eyeball made of sand he sent to look over his Sakura.

He paused and blinked then stood up. The men around the table looked at him questioningly.

"Something the matter, Lord Kazekage?" The Feudal Lord asked behind the fan he was using to cover his mouth.

Gaara balled his fist, ignoring the terrified looks of the men around him, and took his seat again. "Do not mind me. Please continue."

The men threw him last questioning and horrified looks before resuming the discussion. Temari squeezed her brother's hand to comfort him from whatever was bothering him.

However, Gaara's attention was directed at the scene seen by his eyeball.

Sakura was now heading outside the hospital building with the mongrel Tetsuo beside her.

That was not the reason why Gaara felt a little anxious. The reason was the blond male walking in front of the building.

And if Sakura wouldn't stop right away, she would come face to face with her former teammate.

Naruto.

XX

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End of chapter!

Itachi13080, thank you for reviewing! That is very nice of you. And about Sasuke dating Karin... For Karin, they are. But for Sasuke, well, he was 'using' her for several purposes. You know, to satisfy his 'needs, as a man. :) You get the point. :D

Review after you read this~ Thank you!


	9. Unwelcome Encounter: Forget and Forgive?

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**Chapter 9 **for you, guys~ OMGee. I decided to update this chapter after I've read each and every review you posted. They give me the motivation, inspiration and energy to update. THANK YOU! And I didn't know that you like the GaaSaku moments there. I hope to maintain the quality of this crappy story. :))

OH, this chapter is longer than I expected. :P

itachi13080, thank you so much. I seriously laughed hard when I read 'let Sasuke and Karin be HAPPY together'. :)) That was just a lil bitter. :PP

Lonely Athena, I am very happy that you think the GaaSaku part is awesome. Thank you :))

Jennii Marie, actually, before posting this story, I really didn't think about the GaaSaku pairing. Gaara just popped in my head when I came up with the idea of the Kazekage. And I was like, why not put our redhead in the story as Sakura's lover, right? I ship GaaSaku as well, that is :))

**WARNING: **Foul language, some sexy talk, the eroors and the OOCness :))

**DISCLAIMER: **I OWN nothing, except the plot, the errors, the OC and the crappy-ness.

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**Chapter 9: Unwelcome Encounter: Forget and Forgive?**

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"So, where should we go, Sakura-san?" Tetsuo asked with a small flush on his cheeks that made Sakura to smile. Somehow, she missed being with her subordinate. This encounter lightened her sorrowful heart.

"Wherever you desire, Tetsuo," the pink head answered as she adjusted her hat. She decided to use a hat because it was freaking hot and so the sun wouldn't damage her hair. "And please," she purposely lowered her voice in a commanding tone. "Refer me as Sakura when outside the hospital."

"But—"

"It made me look older when you address me as Sakura-san," she finished shortly. Her tone gave no room for an argument as Tetsuo responded with a slight and hesitant nod.

"So, how are you doing this p-past few years, S-Sakura?" He muttered her name in a nervous tone and Sakura couldn't help but to laugh softly. The blush on Tetsuo's cheeks intensified and she laughed more.

"You stutter like a shy schoolboy confessing his undying love to his eternal beloved." Sakura joked and grinned at the blushing man. She patted his shoulder. "Geez, Tetsuo, it's just a joke!"

Tetsuo cracked a small yet sincere smile. "You actually do not joke before, Sakura-san. It's a brand new sight to me."

Sakura frowned. "So, is it a bad thing?"

The dark male shook his head violently. "No! It's not! It's a good thing! It is, really!"

Sakura laughed and watched him quite amusedly. "You flatter me sometimes, Tetsuo."

Tetsuo laughed sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head. The movement reminded her of a certain blonde teammate.

Oh, Naruto… She thought sadly. I wish I could face you but the pain you have given to me prevented me from doing so…

She closed her eyes momentarily, trying with her level best not to think of her previous unwanted encounter with her teammates.

She didn't know if she can take it once more if she happens to meet any of them again. She was quite proud to herself when she controlled her emotions when she faced them earlier. She didn't expect that she could be calm despite the situation and she handled the situation with minor difficulty.

But still, if it wasn't for Genma, she would be a dead kunoichi with pink hair right now for being careless and childish.

She made a mental note to thank the senbon Jounin.

Either way, she has Gaara to comfort her if she would ever encounter Naruto or Sasuke or both of them today, though she doubted that a lot. And she was happy to know that the redhead was there at her side to comfort and support her.

Having a mutual romantic relationship with Gaara actually never crossed her intelligent mind once. But who cares anyway? Gaara was actually hers now. Not officially though, because a handful of people only knew their relationship; namely her shisou and Shizune (though she kept denying that Gaara and her had a relationship), Temari, Kankuro, Gaara's personal secretary, Ino, Tenten, Hinata, Genma, Kakashi and the gate guards. They were the closest people to her so she kept no secrets to them.

Besides, it was her who claimed to put their relationship in secret. She reasoned the fact that if people would ever know that Gaara was dating a common ninja, the Kazekage might encounter problems regarding the issue in the future. And she didn't want that to happen.

Gaara answered her with a painful kiss, telling her that he was not happy about the idea. But he couldn't do anything about it anyway…

She blushed at the memory and was startled when Tetsuo's voice snapped her from her thoughts. She wondered what he was shouting about.

"Sakura-san, look out!" He cried and in one fluid motion, Sakura was pulled backward before she was hit by a rushing cart. She realized that hadn't Tetsuo pulled her in time, the cart would have dragged her and injured her.

She cursed at herself for being careless again when she felt Tetsuo pulled her to her feet then Tetsuo appeared in front of her, anxiously. "Sakura-san, are you alright?"

She would have answered him and given him her thanks hadn't she noticed that the supposed to be Tetsuo was still holding her from behind.

She blinked before realization dawned her. Tetsuo did not save her. A stranger saved her.

"Geez, that cart was fucking dangerous with that incredible speed… Is the driver a fucking blind?"

Sakura's eyes widened to its fullest upon hearing that awfully familiar voice.

"Lady, you're lucky I saw you in time. Are you alright?"

Then the man turned her so she was facing him completely. The first thing he noticed about her was the huge surprise written on her face. Her eyes were as big as small plates.

He would have laughed at her hadn't he noticed the color of her eyes.

They were emerald green.

They were very familiar emerald green.

His blue eyes widened when her eyes matched a certain name inside his mind and suddenly he tightened his grip on her shoulders unconsciously.

"Sakura?" He whispered. "Sakura, is that you?" He said, this time, louder.

The woman blinked and with a flexed of a finger, she pulled herself away from his grip and she ran away so fast that the wind blew her hat away, revealing her short pink hair.

Without second thought, the man followed her as he kept on calling her to stop.

"Wait up, Sakura-chan!"

XX

Naruto entered the Kazekage tower with his hands stuffed inside the pockets of his pants. Before he stepped inside said building, he swore he saw a flash of pink in his peripheral view. Blinking, he turned his head to the side and found none.

Blaming his exhaustion for making him imagine things, he shrugged and made his way directly to Gaara's office.

Upon reaching the door of the redhead's office, he was met by a brunette holding a pile of papers. Naruto recognized him easily. He was Gaara's personal secretary.

"Good day, Naruto-sama," the secretary greeted with a polite bow.

Naruto grinned in response. "Same to you, Sohei. I came to see Gaara. Is he slacking off in his office?"

Sohei chuckled at the joke but shook his head slightly. "Kazekage-sama is currently in a convention with the Feudal Lord and the businessmen of the country. I am afraid that the meeting will end around six o'clock in the evening, Naruto-sama."

Naruto frowned visibly. He had a bad timing. "Damn. Just tell him that I stopped by."

"Your message will be delivered to Kazekage-sama right away."

"I have to go," Naruto turned to leave but a question flashed inside his mind. He faced the secretary again. "Is Gaara doing fine?"

The secretary blinked before understanding the question. "Yes, Kazekage-sama is fine."

Naruto frowned again. "I've heard that he is not entirely okay. He often times is in a bad mood and always having tantrums…"

"Yes, he is," the secretary answered honestly. "However, Hokage-sama sent a Konoha medic for Kazekage-sama to deal with the problem. She arrived early in this morning with a companion."

Naruto nodded and grinned. "Konoha medics are the best, right?"

"Yes," the brunette agreed with a nod and a smile. "Yes, they are."

"You know, I have the feeling that this medic you're talking about will be Gaara's bed mate tonight." Sohei practically choked on the words and Naruto laughed. "Geez, it's a joke." Naruto rolled his eyes.

Sohei cleared his throat. "Yes, I am aware. However, I believe that I have to agree with your last remark, Naruto-sama."

This time Naruto choked, disbelieving. "What?!"

Sohei managed to chuckle softly. "The medic is the Kazekage's girlfriend in all honesty."

Naruto grabbed the secretary's shoulders and he leaned forward. "No way, man. You have to tell me her name right now!" If Naruto would ever know the woman, he has something to use as blackmail for Gaara at last. He grinned.

Sohei smiled weakly and shook his head. "I am afraid that I am not allowed to speak such confidential information."

Naruto crossed his arms. "I am Gaara's best friend," he said as a matter of factly. "You should keep no confidential information to me."

"True," Sohei gave Naruto a small smile. "But Kazekage kept this information to himself."

"Remind me again why did you tell me about his girlfriend then actually have no intention of spilling the complete details?" Naruto sent the secretary a pointed look.

As a response, Sohei laughed wholeheartedly.

Naruto chuckled as well and bid the secretary goodbye. He would deal with this later when he meets Gaara anyway. And he would have a serious interrogation with the former bijuu container.

He laughed at the thought.

Naruto then decided to stroll around the village as he waited for Gaara's meeting to end. He wondered where his teammates are. Sasuke might be fucking Karin right now. Naruto merely shivered in revulsion.

He managed to eat in a certain ramen stand and complimented the chef for having one of the best ramens. Still, for him, Ichiraku's is the best!

After several hours of strolling and hiding when he saw Sasuke or Suigetsu somewhere, Naruto let his feet dragged him to an unknown place.

He then passed a certain mirror shop when he caught himself on one of the mirrors there. He stopped and looked at his own expression then scowled when he caught sight of a large bruise on his face.

"That teme…" He hissed and decided to visit the hospital to fix the bruise. He had actually thought of finding the Konoha medic to deal with the problem but the fact that Gaara would probably kill him seriously kept him from doing so.

Instead, he made his way towards the hospital.

Upon reaching the hospital, he immediately noticed a couple talking and walking.

The girl was obviously pretty and with her smooth complexion, Naruto wondered if she was a resident in Suna or just a tourist. He decided with the latter when he caught sight of her hat that protected her hair from the blazing sun and her pale, smooth complexion.

He also realized that she was a ninja, because she hid her chakra too well for an average ninja.

She had said something to the male beside him. Naruto laughed at how the man looked sheepish as he rubbed the back of his head. He reminded him of himself, and the girl reminded her of Sakura.

He then noticed that the girl turned silent as she stared at the ground while walking. She seemed reminiscing some painful events from before. Naruto suddenly felt bad for her when his attention was caught by a rushing cart from his left.

Looking towards the woman again, he noticed that she hadn't stopped. The man beside her did not notice the cart yet and if he wouldn't do anything, the woman might get hurt.

Charging chakra to his feet, he sprinted towards the couple in an inhuman speed. He pulled the woman backward just in time the cart passed them.

They fell on the ground with him supporting her from touching the ground. He heard the girl's companion approached her and asked if she was okay. Strange. Her name was Sakura.

"Geez, that cart was fucking dangerous with that incredible speed… Is the driver a fucking blind?" He muttered, glancing to where the cart had disappeared.

He felt the woman tensed at his words. He thought that it was probably because of the accident that almost killed her.

"Lady, you're lucky I saw you in time. Are you alright?" Then he made her faced him so he could look at her better.

The first thing he noticed about her was the huge surprise written on her face. Her expression would be funny if he didn't notice the color of her eyes. They were emerald green.

He didn't know when he recognized who she was but he didn't care. He tightened his grip on her shoulders as he muttered carefully her name.

"Sakura?" He made his voice louder, afraid that she might not hear him clearly. "Sakura, is that you?"

The woman blinked then suddenly, she was gone. Blinking, Naruto stood up abruptly and saw the woman running away from him. The hat was removed from her head and he caught sight of her pink hair.

No doubt the woman was Sakura.

Wordlessly, he followed her. "Wait up, Sakura-chan!"

XX

Sakura charged chakra to her feet so she could run faster. Damn this day. Damn for meeting that asshole right now. Damn the heavens!

Of all the worst days, today was the day the heaven had chosen to mess with her!?

What did she do in her past life to deserve this fucking shit?

Sakura quickened her pace when she felt Naruto gained pace behind her.

She didn't want to deal with that bastard.

She didn't want to see him.

She wasn't ready to face him yet.

She heard a distant puff of smoke behind her then three Naruto's appeared in front of her. Surprised, but rolled her eyes at how typical Naruto was after several years, Sakura back flipped three times and landed on the sandy ground effortlessly. Charging chakra to her fist, she punched the nearest Naruto in the face and he disappeared in a puff of smoke.

There were many Naruto's approaching her by the time she had stopped running and she couldn't help but to fight them back.

Somehow she managed to bring the both of them in a small clearing surrounded by several dessert trees despite the sandy ground. So, they were actually alone.

'Great. Just like what you needed.'

She ignored the voice as she analyzed her situation. Strange that they were not attacking her. Instead, they held her arms and hands when they got the chance to. She realized that they were trying to get a hold of her and cease her movements.

Sakura became frustrated at the situation as one of Naruto's clone managed to hold her right arm. "Release me, asshole!" She yelled angrily.

"No, Sakura-chan," the Naruto clones chorused. "We won't. Stay calm and we have to talk."

"Talk to my ass, you bastard!" Sakura kicked the clone that was holding her but the other clones caught her leg and she gritted her teeth in extreme agitation. "I said release me or I'll kill you!"

The clones were as stubborn as they hoped for the real Naruto to appear now. They couldn't keep holding this mad kunoichi too long anymore.

Sakura twirled violently making the Naruto clones to loosen their grip on her. She smirked and went to punching the poor clones merciless.

Somehow, fighting Naruto was calming her angry nerves and it was relieving her in the strangest and most twisted ways.

Sakura ducked to aim a kick towards three Narutos and when they puffed and disappeared, she stood up again and went back to relieving some angry nerves by finishing the other clones.

She caught sight of an approaching Naruto behind her and she turned around, her fist charged with angry chakra. She punched the Naruto clone straight on the face and she thought she heard a cracking sound. She caught sight of another Naruto on her right and she went to deal with him but stopped instantly when she heard crashing noise behind her.

Turning sharply, she watched in slight horror as the supposed to be Naruto clone smashed himself over several trees and then slammed on a hard rock with a painful thud. Sakura visibly winced at the sound.

'That will hurt as hell.'

That's when Sakura realized that she had not punched a Naruto clone; instead she managed to give the real Naruto a one hell of a punch that probably would kill the blond if not tended right away.

Sakura ran towards the injured blond as the remaining Naruto clones disappeared in several puffs of smoke. Not long after, she ended up at the end of the clearing and instantly saw the half-dead body of Naruto on the ground. She would have complimented her work seeing the destroyed trees but the painful grunts of the blonde snapped her from her thoughts.

Hesitantly, she approached the blond and kneeled in front of him. "Narut—" She stopped before she completed muttering his name. Strangely enough, his name felt foreign to her tongue. She curled her lips and decided to scan Naruto's injuries instead. Raising a hand, she paused as she realized what she was doing.

She hesitated at first. She really wanted to kill Naruto for leaving her behind but still, somewhere deep, deep, deep, and I mean the deepest part of her heart, she cared for him. Seeing him in such pained condition pained her also though she would never admit it.

'You still love this idiot. Despite the fucking pain he's caused, you still love him and you know it.'

She ignored the voice in her head as she raised a glowing hand. She went to touch him, to heal him, as a loyal medic of Konoha, but once she felt his warm skin against the tip of her cold fingers, she withdrew her hand instantly, as if her fingers had been burnt.

She couldn't do it.

She couldn't touch him.

She couldn't look at him.

She couldn't do anything to him.

Not yet.

Naruto's painful groans snapped Sakura from her thoughts. Seeing Naruto in this state made her feel a little guilty for what she had done to him. Maybe she overdid it. But…

'You want to kill him, right? Why just don't do it right now?'

She ignored the voice to her level best as she carefully scanned the length of Naruto's back. Her face twisted with a frown as she realized how she injured him carelessly.

'I thought you will stand your ground and kill the asshole…'

The voice in her head became annoying and annoying. Instead, she focused herself to her task. Somehow, she managed to give him several spine injuries and deformed his face with that killer punch. She actually winced at the sight.

The inner voice laughed at her mockingly. 'Seeing you in this state made me realize that you're still a softy after these fucking years, dear.'

She gritted her teeth and curled her lips into thin line. She needn't distractions right now, goddamn it.

'I thought you became stronger… outside and inside. But I guess, I thought wrong, didn't I? You're still weak inside. We both know it.'

Sakura knew very, very well that the inner she was provoking her to snap. She must maintain calmness right now. She didn't need shit! She needed to concentrate at her task! She forcefully concentrated herself as she began charging healing chakra toward Naruto's spine injuries.

'So, what happen to the… I'll fucking kill those bastards for leaving me behind those fucking years, eh?' And the inner she laughed again.

Sakura gritted her teeth, unable to control her growing anger. "Shut up, you bitch," she hissed as her healing ceased just a moment to control herself.

'I am just here to remind you what these bastards did to you, sweetie. They didn't deserve any of your mercy.'

She couldn't argue with that. The inner she was actually right and she had a point. But still… "This bastard is still a Konoha shinobi and as a Konoha medic, I am obliged to heal him whatever the circumstances are."

Inner Sakura let an empty laugh. 'We both know that you're lying. It's written all over your oh so awesome face, dear.'

Sakura opened her mouth for a smart retort but she realized that she has nothing to say. It was the truth. Her reason to heal Naruto was a lie. She knew it.

She went back healing the blond. Once done with his spine, she focused now on his deformed face. The inner she somehow managed to shut her mouth, much to Sakura's pleasure as she could concentrate more to her work.

While healing him, Sakura thought about what she would do after this. She decided just to leave the blond unconscious there so that she could avoid talking to him or whatsoever. She didn't need to talk to him. There was nothing to talk about and no reason to do so.

Naruto shifted slightly, feeling uncomfortable at his position. Sighing and her doctor side kicking in, Sakura gently lifted his head and rested it on her lap. Naruto sighed in content.

'He is actually enjoying this, isn't he?'

Sakura rolled her eyes and resumed her work.

'Or rather, you are enjoying this, aren't you?'

"Oh, just shut up," she replied lazily then blinked the dizziness away in her eyes. Somehow, her vision began to blur and she realized with a frown that she spent too much chakra in fighting earlier and now, in healing.

She managed to heal the ugly bruise on Naruto's face and fixed his face to its original form. However, there were still damage tissues and cartilages that needed to be healed.

Sighing, she quickened her pace. The sooner she was done with it, the better.

XX

Naruto stirred slightly when Sakura's fingers ran the length of his jaw line. The pain was long gone but his face ached whenever she applied pressure against it.

Naruto immediately recognized her smell even though he hadn't seen her in several years. But that didn't mean that he already had forgotten about her.

Hell, she was the only thing he thinks in these past years.

"S-Sakura-chan?" He called softly, his voice was hoarse. He felt her ceased her movements momentarily before resuming them again. This time the pressure she applied was harder. He managed to keep himself from wincing.

"Don't talk," she answered softly, voice cold.

Naruto didn't listen. "Sakura-chan, are you angry at us?"

She was silent for a few minutes before making a response. "I said don't talk," here she paused as she applied more pressure and Naruto winced slightly. "And me? Angry at you? That's an understatement."

Naruto tried to sit but Sakura pushed him down. "Sakura-chan, please forgiv—"

"And don't refer me as Sakura-chan," she interrupted immediately, voice low in a growl. "I didn't even know who you are."

Naruto fell silent after hearing this. He could feel how mad she was at them, at him. It was obvious in her tone.

But Naruto was confused.

Why was she mad at him? He kept his promise. He came back and he brought Sasuke with him. It's for Sakura. All of the things he did were for Sakura. So, why?

"I'm done here," Sakura declared as she withdrew her hands. "And don't dare follow me."

She was about to stand when Naruto called her with a soft, pleading tone that made her heart clenched slightly. "Why, Sakura-chan?"

She paused and her chest clenched painfully when their gazes met. The sincerity and happiness in the blonde's eyes made Sakura's heart to sink. Immediately, she turned her head to the side, not wanting to look at him.

Naruto continued. "Why," he repeated, this time his tone was louder. "Why are you mad at us… at me?"

Sakura curled her lips into thin line, not wanting to answer.

Naruto pushed himself to sit and Sakura didn't push him on the ground. He stared at her and she stared everywhere but him.

"I don't know why you are mad, Sakura-chan, but I'm here to apologize. Please listen."

"Don't talk, Uzumaki," Sakura hissed, rejecting the tears in the corners of her eyes. "You are in no position to talk."

"Sakura-chan," Naruto grabbed her hand and she slapped his away. His face twisted in pure sadness and rejection.

"Don't touch me," Sakura finally gave him a deadly glare and she stood up. "I hate you. I hate you and the Uchiha. I loath the both of you," she declared sternly. She turned around and began walking away. "I will kill you without second thought, and Konoha law be damned, if you dare follow me."

Abruptly and ignoring the pain to his best, Naruto stood up, grabbed her by the shoulders, spun her around and pulled her into his embrace.

Sakura trashed against him and surprised to realize that Naruto held her in an iron grip despite the injuries he had earlier. "Release me, you bastard," she hissed angrily.

Naruto shook his head stubbornly. "No, I won't. I won't release you no matter what, Sakura-chan."

"Don't make me immobilize you, Uzumaki," she warned but he shook his head again as a response. She growled in frustration.

"Listen to me, Sakura-chan," he muttered against her bare neck. Sakura merely shivered at his warm voice.

"No, release me now," Sakura cut him off, sternly.

"Fine, I will continue even if you don't listen," Naruto stated and pulled her even closer to him.

"I said no!"

Naruto bit his lip as he hugged her tighter. Unfortunately for Sakura, she couldn't do anything because of his grip on her. She needed to do something now, fuck it!

'I'm interested at what he will going to say. So, relax and enjoy listening, babe.'

"Shut up," Sakura hissed, both to inner her and to Naruto.

"Sakura," he purposely dropped the suffix to tell her he was dead serious. "I know I made my mistake for leaving you before. It pained me as well to leave you, but I made a promise, didn't I?"

She heard him sniffed and he continued. She didn't like where this conversation would be going. She could sense it.

"I promised I will be back. So I came back. I promised I will bring teme with me. I'm here with Sasuke, am I not?" He paused here as if choosing the best words. "So, why are you mad? Why are you mad, Sakura-chan?"

Sakura felt water dropped on her shoulders. Realizing that it wasn't raining, she tilted her head to the side and found Naruto crying softly. Her heart instantly melted at the sight.

Naruto barely cried. Actually, she didn't see him cry, maybe just two or three times. It was rare in the eye to see the bright blond cry. "Naruto…" She finally muttered his name, her heart clenched painfully inside her chest.

"Tell me, Sakura-chan, why," he unconsciously tightened his grip, if that's still possible. "I want to know. Tell me… Tell me why you are mad. Tell me what I did wrong to upset you…"

Sakura let her tears fell for a moment. She hated herself at that moment. She hated herself for hating Naruto when all he did was good to her.

Though he left her years ago, he still kept his promise… just only for her. He came back now, with Sasuke, just like what he promised to her.

Is it really acceptable to hate him?

"Once I came back home, I expected you to be there… To see what I brought to you… To see your smiling face when you see Sasuke… But you're not there… You're not at home…"

Sakura wrapped her arms around him without knowing it as she sank at the sincerity of his words.

"I searched for you everywhere and I didn't find you… Once again, I thought that I lost someone special to me… It pained me deeply when I didn't see you…"

'You hurt him as well, dear.' The inner her stated.

"First were Sasuke and now you… I don't know what to do back then… I went on rampage. I almost even killed Sai that time."

Is it being childish to hate Naruto?

"That's when Tsunade-baachan told me that you're on a long mission. I didn't know how that relieved me," here he chuckled softly but the laughter died down instantly. "Then I found you here. I didn't know what to do but to follow and talk to you, Sakura-chan. I couldn't wish for more just to see and be with you again."

His words brought happiness to her heart. In an instant, her anger towards him vanished and replaced with excitement, longing and love.

It was impossible to stay mad at Naruto for a long time.

That she realized right now.

"Bastard," Sakura managed with a small smile on her lips as she embraced him. "I hate you so much, you bastard."

Her words didn't hurt him. Naruto knew that she meant was the opposite of her words.

"I love you, too, Sakura-chan."

Sakura smiled and pulled away only to look at her blond best friend with loving eyes. His face was wet because of the tears, like hers, but the sadness in his expression disappeared along with the confusion and agony. All that left was pure happiness and excitement. She let herself to smile again.

Naruto cupped her cheeks and wiped all the tears away from her face. A sincere smile was plastered on his face. "I miss that smile so damn much, you know that?"

Sakura hummed and leaned against his warm hands. "And I miss this hand so much, Naruto."

Naruto gave her his infamous goofy grin. "I miss you so much, Sakura-chan. and I promise I'll never ever leave your side for the rest of your days, dattebayo!"

Sakura chuckled softly and let a tear fell down to her cheek. Now she was crying because of joy.

Her happiness was cut short when something grabbed her foot and she squeaked in surprise. Looking down, she saw a flash of red and then she heard a whizzing noise behind her.

Turning around, her eyes widened at the sight of the man standing right before her, his arms crossed.

"G-Gaara?" She heard Naruto asked behind her, disbelief in his tone.

Suddenly, Gaara sent Naruto one of his deadliest glares before the sand that surrounds him turned into deadly spikes and were pointing dangerously at Naruto.

And before Naruto or Sakura could do something, Gaara used his hand to pull Sakura to him and sent the spikes towards Naruto and then…

BOOOOOM!

"NARUTO!"

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And END OF CHAPTER 9. Whew~ I know it's kinda lame... Tell me what ya think about it. I so love your reviews! They're killing me in sheer happiness! :))) Yeah, just exaggerating.

I am planning some SasuSaku moments later on... What do you think about it? :/

READ AND REVIEW.

That is awesome!


	10. Imposing Proposition

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**HELLO. **Here's a new chapter for you guys. I was quite surprised about the reviews I've read. And I found myself torn between answering them or just ignore them. :/

Jennii Marie, your idea is nice! Let me think about it! Thank you! And I like it how you addressed Sasuke as Asshole. XD

itachi13080, thank you for telling me that Naruto was in-character! Yeah, I'm planning the scene about the meeting of Sasuke and Sakura. I just hope you will like it! :))

Raiza-chan, thank you for reviewing! :)

And about the guest(s) who reviewed that they wanted this story to be a NaruSaku, err, I actually don't know... I kinda planned it to be a love triangle between the Uchiha and Gaara. And Naruto sees Sakura as his BEST FRIEND. I'm sorry! Well, I'm planning a NaruSaku story as of now. And just looking for an extra time to type it. Maybe you'll like it instead?

**DISCLAIMER:**I OWN nothing, only the plot and the OC there.

**WARNING: **Foul langage, sexy and dirty talk and the OCCness of the characters plus errors yada yada~

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**Chapter 10: Imposing Proposition**

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Sakura had to cover her face to shield herself from the impact of Gaara's attack. Though the attack wasn't directed for her, she was slightly taken aback because of the impact.

Gaara was suddenly behind her and was holding her shoulder instantly.

And before Sakura could realize what happened, realization hit her. Naruto!

Without any second thought, Sakura rushed towards Naruto but was stopped by Gaara's grip on her shoulder. She turned at him sharply. "Gaara…" Her voice was coated with anxiety, confusion and frustration combined.

Gaara gave her a hard look though there was sincerity in his eyes. "He is not injured."

As if in cue, the smoke from the impact vanished finally, revealing a certain blond who was crouching low in the ground, his arms over his body to shield himself.

"Naruto!"

Sakura's call made Naruto to look up. He blinked before realization hit him. He saw Gaara standing beside the pinkette and was holding her on the shoulder. Naruto stood up and glared at the redhead. "Gaara…" He hissed. "Why the hell did you attack me?!"

Gaara glared back at him before turning around and pulling Sakura with him. "Sakura, let's go."

"Wait!" Naruto shouted and Gaara paused in his tracks. "Where the hell do you think you're doing?"

Gaara gave Naruto a hard look over his shoulder.

"And why the hell are you touching Sakura-chan? Release her, you bastard! You don't have any right to touch her!" Naruto was suddenly mad at the Kazekage seeing his best friend being dragged by the redhead.

Gaara finally turned completely to face the blond and instead of releasing Sakura, he even pulled her closer to him by the waist. "I believe that you don't have any right to accuse me, Uzumaki."

Naruto gritted his teeth and watched in confusion when Sakura did not attempt to escape from Gaara's semi-embrace. Instead, the blush on her face made it quite clear to Naruto that something between the two was happening and he didn't know any of it.

"Sakura-chan?" He asked the pinkette instead.

Sakura then opened her mouth to give Naruto a response but Gaara pulled her even closer to him to tell her she was not to speak any word. Instead, Gaara spoke for Sakura.

"Do you know how much pain you've given to her these past years, Uzumaki?"

Naruto was slightly shocked at the sudden question but he found himself not to argue and just answered the inquiry. "I know," he answered quietly. "But I already apologized to her. And she has forgiven me. It is now settled. We're okay, so just fuck off, Gaara. You're out of this."

Sakura remained silent. She wanted to talk back, to tell Gaara that she and Naruto were indeed okay right now, but there was something in Gaara's eyes that told her to shut her mouth up. So she remained quiet.

"She may have forgiven you but that doesn't change the fact that you hurt her," Gaara stated in austere tone.

Naruto bit his lips. Somehow, Gaara's words struck something deep inside him.

"She may have accepted your apology," Gaara continued, this time his tone was sharp. "But that doesn't mean that she has forgotten all the pain you gave to her… the pain she suffered in those years when she was alone."

Alone, Naruto repeated in his mind. In some way, Naruto now understood the pain Sakura had felt last four years ago when he decided to pursue Sasuke.

He'd felt being alone when he was young… so he understood the feeling.

"You left her just to pursue the man who did not want to be pursued."

But Naruto did what he knew was right and that was to bind all the members of his new family so they could be happy again. That's why he left to find Sasuke and get him back to the village by all means. He actually did it. He achieved the fulfillment of his family but…

"You left her alone without essentially considering what she would feel."

In four years that he was gone to find Sasuke, Sakura was alone in the village. He knew her parents had died the prior year before he left… He knew as well that Sakura's only family was Tsunade, Kakashi, and him. And now that he left her, he actually understood the pain of being alone that she suffered.

The pain was unbearable. She waited for four years without any news of him and Sasuke. The news about their death, which was not true, had spread all over the country and this hurt Sakura so deeply.

And now they came back before her eyes, knowing fully that they were supposed to be dead, intensified her pain, anger towards them and uncertainty. It just worsened the pain in her heart.

"Do you not know how much pain your presence alone can cause her?"

Naruto remained silent as Gaara kept on throwing him hurtful words. Sakura could just watch the scene unfold with fretfulness and worry.

Sakura knew very well that Gaara did not mean any harm to Naruto and his feelings. The redhead was just protecting her from being hurt again. Gaara knew very well how much she suffered this entire time and he was just shielding her from pain. It was a sincere act for her. However, she did not want to hurt Naruto…

The regret and repentance of his sins to her were visible in his blue eyes. She saw it. She felt it. And she was now feeling bad to ever hate the man who did nothing but good to her.

Sakura pressed her lips and tugged Gaara by his shirt. "This is enough, Gaara," she muttered in a soft voice. As much as she wanted to make Naruto feel all the pain she felt before, she couldn't find herself to do it.

It was really impossible to stay mad at Naruto…

"C'mon," she tugged Gaara's shirt again but without force. "We have many things to do."

Gaara did not respond as he turned around and led the way back to the tower, leaving Naruto deep in his thoughts.

XX

The couple walked towards the tower under the twilight sky. People who see them might call it 'romance of young love'.

But not for Gaara and Sakura…

Gaara was aware of the heavy atmosphere around them. He gently squeezed Sakura's hand to give her reassurance. Sakura look at him with a smile that he knew was fake and she squeezed his hand back before directing her gaze back at nothing.

The entirety of their journey was filled with silence but nobody seemed to be bothered by it. Both of them were deep in thoughts.

Once they reached the tower, few personnel greeted the Kazekage and they wondered for a moment why is the Kazekage holding the hand of the medic from Konoha.

Gaara could care less as he led the way straight to his office but without telling Sohei, his secretary, that he was not to be disturbed by anyone. And for reassurance of this, Gaara made an eyeball of sand and so he could see everything.

Gaara went inside his office with Sakura and he walked directly towards his bedroom.

The bedroom was installed by Temari who told him that Gaara was so busy he has no time to go home anymore. So she installed this bedroom for Gaara.

Gaara's new bedroom was more convenient, more comfortable, more relaxing, and bigger and he preferred it rather than his original one back at their residence. Somehow, this bedroom made him to feel at home.

Gaara locked the door behind him and watched as Sakura walked over the bed and sat on it. The redhead sighed and walked over to sit beside her.

He placed his forehead against the crook of her neck and he sighed again, marveling her unique scent. "Are you mad?" He murmured against her skin.

Sakura ran a hand onto his hair making him sighed in content. "No, I'm not," she answered softly.

Gaara leaned even close to her. He missed this. He missed her. "Tell me why you are upset."

This time Sakura sighed. "Am I upset to you?"

Gaara pulled back only to look at her. He cupped her right cheek and watched as Sakura touched his hand on her face. "Are you?"

Gaara watched silently as tears gathered in the corners of her emerald eyes until she couldn't keep them any longer so she let them fall. She sobbed silently as he used his free hand to wipe her tears. "I don't know what to do anymore."

Gaara pressed his lips together as he watched in silence as tears kept flowing down her face.

"I was so mad at him for leaving me behind… I was so mad at him because he gave me hope back then… I hoped for their return but… But then… I heard they were dead… it pained me…"

Gaara did not expect their encounter after two years would be like this, but then again, he could care less. As long as he was with his girl, everything was fine.

Gaara pulled her to him, locking her in his embrace.

"And seeing Naruto right now… I never felt so happy before…"

Gaara could feel her shaking slightly as she sobbed the words locked in her heart for a long time. He listened to her.

"I didn't know what to feel about right now… I was happy and yet I was mad… I want to hug him, to welcome him… But I want to kill him as well… I want him to suffer the pain he'd caused… But neither of those I couldn't bring myself to do… I was so confused… What should I do?"

Gaara could give her no answer but a gesture of reassurance. He knew deeply that Sakura was considering her situation right now. She had to assess this herself. Or else, she might hurt herself again…

Sakura pulled only to lock gaze with the redhead. Her teary eyes were deeply staring at his sea foam orbs, as if pleading for an answer. She found none but reassurance.

"What, Gaara, should I do?" She asked in a silent tone. "What should I do if I was torn between love and hatred?"

As an answer, Gaara leaned down and captured her lips. Sakura was so absorbed in her thoughts she didn't stop him. At least, Gaara was with her to offer her comfort that she needs. And that she was very grateful for.

"You are thinking too much," Gaara murmured against her lips. He placed his hand behind her neck and tilted her head to give him a better angle.

Sakura hummed in content. She missed it. She missed him. Somehow, she felt bad for bringing up Naruto when she was supposed to make up for her absence to Gaara. She shouldn't be thinking about him. At least, not right now.

'It was always Naruto's fault.'

And she couldn't bring herself to argue with her inner self.

XX

Gaara was lying on his bed with Sakura on his side. After telling Sakura not to think about her former teammates and after she settled from crying, the couple decided to spend the night talking about what they did these past few years.

"And so I was shocked to know that my target wasn't into me after I'd showed him my half-naked body…"

Gaara grunted in disagreement.

"Don't be so upset about it." Sakura said and gave him a side-long pointed look.

Regarding that look, Gaara sent her his evenly pointed look. "Nobody has the right to see your body except me."

"I was on an assassination mission back there."

"More like seduction mission…" Gaara muttered grudgingly. As much as he wanted to see Sakura in her naked state, he wanted to preserve her beauty until the day they would oath eternal love to each other.

"Yeah, more like seduction mission," Sakura laughed softly as she remembered those happy memories. "But once I realized that the guy wasn't into me, I began to question myself if I was sexy enough or–"

"You're sexy enough for me," Gaara breathed lowly in her ear that earned him shiver from her. He smirked.

Sakura placed her hand on his cheek and pushed him away from her slightly, face blushing. "Hey, don't interrupt me!"

Gaara chuckled and she proceeded with her story.

"Then after that, I just went to assassinate him. But before I killed him, he told me that he had wished for a man to kill him so he would fuck and rape the guy first before dying. See!" With this, she laughed wholeheartedly. "The guy was a gay! I spent so much time to seduce him and yet, he was actually into another guy?" She laughed again.

Gaara chuckled. "But I'm still not in favor of you seducing that homosexual bastard."

"Don't complain to me, complain to Tsunade-shisou for giving me that mission…"

Gaara used an elbow to prop himself up and caressed Sakura's cheek lovingly. "Because you're the sexiest kunoichi in the Leaf…"

Sakura laughed softly. "Yes, yes I am–"

Gaara cut her immediately with a passionate kiss and Sakura did not dare to stop him. She let herself melt under him.

Gaara pulled and put his lips against her neck, giving it butterfly kisses. "I am thinking what punishment is best for you, Sakura…"

Sakura shivered both at the implication of his words and the warm breath against her neck. "You don't have to punish me, ya know."

Gaara nipped the skin gently. "I want to." Gaara then placed his hand on her thigh and Sakura merely jumped in surprise.

"Gaara!"

"You're in no position to complain, to argue, or to talk," he muttered against her neck.

"For the sake of the sand we're here in the Kazekage Tower!"

Gaara silenced her with a forceful kiss on the lips. "Who the hell cares?"

"I do–"

And another kiss from Gaara, cutting her off again. "But I do not."

"Gaara–"

This time Gaara silenced her when he bit her earlobe slightly. "You know," his tone dropped seductively. "This very moment I want to fuck you merciless right there and then…"

Sakura blushed hard.

'It is always not a good thing when Gaara began to talk dirty… But it can't be helped. Horny teenagers…'

"I want to rip your clothes off… Touch you everywhere… Taste you… Fuck you hard… And fast…"

'Is it me? Or is it just starting to get hot?'

His hand touched her everywhere except the places she wanted him to touch her. He was teasing her.

"Gaara…"

"But," Gaara ceased his movements as he used his hand to cup her cheek and made her to look at him. He stared at her eyes lovingly. "I won't do any of those. I'll do those things after marrying you."

Sakura widened in pure surprise at the word 'marrying'. She then immediately sat up. "M-Marry?"

Gaara sat up also and let himself to smile slightly. "Yes."

He grabbed her face again, forcing her to look nowhere but him. "I decided to tell you this two years ago but you left…"

Sakura's heart clenched hearing those words. "Sorry," was all she could say.

"Don't," Gaara answered firmly. "You're here, I don't care about that shit anymore."

'Oooh, Gaara will ask you the infamous 'will you marry me?' question. Fucking sweet!'

"Sakura…"

'Here we go!'

"Marry me."

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And END of Chapter! This story seriously is killing a lot of my brain cells! XD Hope ya like it :P

Read and Review, please~


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